City of Essen progresses development of Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan

Since 2022, the City of Essen has been working on a new mobility plan to make transport more modern, sustainable and accessible. The process has combined expert analysis with broad public engagement, including mobility forums, a coffee-bike tour, workshops for politicians and advisory board sessions. These activities, alongside cross-departmental coordination, helped identify local needs and ideas. The findings informed target networks for different transport modes, forming the basis for concrete recommendations and measures to guide Essen’s future mobility planning.

On 24 September 2025, the city council received the first draft of the implementation concept. It sets out 57 measures, ranging from short-term improvements to long-term investments, to strengthen environmentally friendly transport, improve quality of life, ensure barrier-free and socially fair mobility, and cut noise and air pollution.

From 2027, Essen will be required under European law to have a Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (SUMP). As the current concept does not yet meet all EU criteria, further work will focus on:

• Testing automated public transport, with a pilot project planned around Zollverein.
• Speeding up public transport through smart solutions to remove bottlenecks.
• Developing city-centre traffic measures in line with the “Future.Essen.City Centre” strategy.

Before a formal adoption decision is made in 2026, the draft plan will be presented to political committees and shared for further public discussion. With this initiative, Essen is taking an important step towards a cleaner, quieter and more liveable city, and towards full alignment with European mobility standards.

Author: Claus Köllinger

Views and opinions expressed are those of the author(s) and do not reflect those of the European Commission.