Traffic turnaround: More quality of life in cities

The transport revolution is necessary, as any walk through a large city shows. Cars not only consume a large proportion of urban areas because they take up more and more space, but also cause large quantities of climate-damaging emissions. Cities therefore have a central role to play when it comes to improving the quality of life. There are possible solutions.

Cities need to keep urban living spaces liveable under changing climatic conditions. At the same time, many cities are struggling with an overloaded infrastructure in motorised private transport and local public transport. This has an impact on the urban environment, road safety and quality of life.

The aim of the traffic turnaround is to shift as much traffic as possible to environmentally friendly modes of transport and to avoid unnecessary traffic while maintaining the same level of mobility. Excessive traffic is a relic from the past, when cities were designed to be car-friendly. The picture has changed: Today, cities should be functional, climate-friendly and liveable. In the long term, the transport transition is a challenge for both urban and rural areas, as spatial interdependencies extend across many regions. In everyday life, many people move between different areas every day - for shopping, for leisure and as part of social relationships.

Cars are increasingly dominating the image of city centres and taking up an excessive amount of space. Urban space cannot keep pace with the size and number of cars.

The reorganisation of urban parking is an urgent task. Far-reaching changes in mobility behaviour are unavoidable. The inhabitants of Paris have just decided to make parking for SUVs drastically more expensive. Public space is so heavily dominated by cars that other uses are made more difficult. At the same time, the expansion of public transport needs to be driven forward. Various studies have come to the conclusion that the transport capacity of public transport must be doubled in order to achieve the climate protection targets.

More on the topic in the podcast of the Federal Agency for Civic Education www.bpb.de/545262.

(Photo: © Nile, Pixabay)