EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK: How cities like Budapest are striving for a more inclusive, accessible, and sustainable urban environment

EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK is a European Commission campaign aimed at raising awareness of sustainable urban mobility. It encourages a shift in behavior toward active transportation, public transit, and other environmentally friendly transport solutions.

Held annually from September 16-22, the week-long event culminates in the popular Car-Free Day. Local governments are encouraged to use this period to test innovative planning strategies, showcase new infrastructure and technologies, monitor air quality, and gather public input.

The campaign continues to grow each year, with more cities and towns across Europe participating and adopting innovative and successful mobility strategies.

This year is no exception, highlighting key examples of how cities can continue to strive for a more inclusive, accessible, and sustainable urban environment. Keep an eye out for what cities will be up to in just a few weeks!

Theme for 2024: Shared Public Space

Each year, a core theme is selected for the campaign. The theme for this year is "Shared Public Space."

This theme highlights the importance of ensuring that public spaces and surrounding activities are designed with social equity and road safety in mind, while also reducing noise and air pollution and improving the overall quality of life. It invites us to consider how urban spaces can ensure that everyone can move safely and comfortably in an environment that is pleasant for both people and the environment.

Cities have the tools to ensure that our public spaces are designed with people in mind and can lead the way in implementing policy and infrastructure changes that support permanent shifts to sustainable mobility.

European cities have embraced this challenge, implementing innovative initiatives across various countries and urban areas. Below, we highlight a recent initiative in Budapest, the winner of this year’s European Mobility Award.

Budapest: Major Street Transformed into Permanent Pedestrian Zone

The Hungarian capital has implemented car-free initiatives throughout several iterations of EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK, most recently in 2023. Earlier this year, it was Budapest’s ambition to make the lower Pest embankment a pedestrian- and cyclist-exclusive area that earned the city a Mobility Award this spring.

The lower Pest embankment, from the Chain Bridge to the Elizabeth Bridge, previously only open to pedestrians and cyclists during the summer and holiday weekends, will now permanently become a car-free zone. This transformation will begin with the construction of a promenade along the Danube River, an area previously reserved for parking. The area will be reconstructed to include green infrastructure elements, such as trees, green spaces, and benches.

Following overwhelmingly positive reactions from users, the Department of Climate and Environmental Affairs in Budapest measured the impact of the car-free initiative. They found that emissions were significantly lowered in the city center, with only small increases in motor traffic on other bridges and the outer ring road. The initiative was therefore found to reduce overall motorized traffic rather than create congestion elsewhere.

Orsolya Barsi, Head of the Department of Climate and Environmental Affairs, explains the city's multi-step process:

"The first openings started only on the weekends during the first COVID lockdown and this was then extended for a couple of weeks for the summer period, when kids were out of school. Then we added more months with weekend closures, so last year this period encompassed 7 months and the year before was more or less the same. The period when it was completely closed to traffic and opened to pedestrians, cycling and community programmes was one month.

We have also been measuring the effect on traffic on other roads, and there are agreements with different NGOs and municipalities that after this test period there will be a decision on the opening based on these results. Meanwhile, we have already closed the Chain Bridge to cars, making it more attractive for people using buses, bicycles, taxis and motorcycles. This represents a big milestone because this bridge marks where the embankment point starts and has resulted in the traffic calming of a much larger area on both sides of the Danube.”

The Chain Bridge, which has now been closed to motorised traffic, has been used to organise events for children and families, and last year hosted a festival. This showcases the importance of increased public space and the benefits it can have on the social life of a community. 

This car-free initiative offers inspiration for other towns and cities across Europe who may wish to make similar changes in their urban centre and improve both the lives of residents and the quality of the environment they reside in. 

Author: Francesca Bracci

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