The City of Budapest has planned and tested car-free initiatives for several years, with its most recent iteration during the 2023 EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK - a car-free weekend counting over 10,000 participants and a car-free day - emerging as a resounding success. Alongside other promotional activities and the implementation of mobility measures, the city’s ambition to open the lower Pest embankment to pedestrians and cyclists permanently caught the attention of the EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK Award jury, resulting in the city’s award win earlier this spring.

A tradition established during the pandemic, which saw a large section of the lower Pest embankment open to pedestrians during summer and holiday weekends, is now set to become a reality: from the Chain Bridge to the Elizabeth Bridge, cyclists, pedestrians and public transport will get to experience a new area along the Danube. The first phase of construction, which includes a promenade on former parking areas with trees, green spaces and benches, is set to begin in the coming months.

Arriving at this point though, was a multi-step, collaborative process according to Orsolya Barsi, Head of the Department of Climate and Environmental Affairs, Budapest:

“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.”

Before the City introduced its ambitious plans for the area, however, the embankment had quite a different future in store.

“In the early 2000s there were plans to expand the Buda side embankment to a two-by-two lane road to create a tunnel to double [motor vehicle] capacity; and instead of having a sort of highway in the middle of the city, we decided to take a different route and to give a part on the Pest side back to the citizens.”

In addition to receiving overwhelmingly positive reactions from users and a general increasing acceptance for this type of large-scale change, Orsolya’s team, together with public institutions, has continued to measure the impact of the car-free initiatives.

“The traffic results show that emissions were lowered in the centre significantly and there were some increases on other bridges and the outer ring road, but they were not significant. So really what we have seen is that some of the motorised traffic has completely disappeared.”

Budapest is one of a growing number of cities permanently opening areas of their city centre to pedestrians and cyclists, in addition to organising expansive car-free days and/or weekends. In 2023, 1,182 towns and cities participating in EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK registered a car-free day. Many are also working towards making these events more regular or broadening their scope.

The Hungarian capital’s replicable car-free initiative offers further inspiration for towns and cities, following our recent interview on the annual city-wide Car-Free Sunday in the Brussels Capital Region. When asked what advice she would give to towns and cities hoping to organise a car-free day or transition from a car-free initiative to a permanent pedestrian area, Orsolya emphasised the importance of families and collaboration:

“I think it’s very important to target families. A big part of the programmes we organised focused on families and how to involve children by also providing events dedicated to them. For example, we lined up all the different types of vehicles (tram, bus, taxi, etc.) which kids could enter and see the driver’s area. The kids loved it, and you could see them queueing up to push the horn of the tram.

Last year, we also had a festival on the Chain Bridge combining many different activities and emphasising the traffic reforms. We also provided some minor funding to NGOs for activities organised during European Mobility Week. It is important to also focus on professional communities, to involve different people working with city transport and mobility, listening to different opinions and providing communications channels and a platform to discuss issues.”

Check out the EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK’s How to organise a car-free day in ten steps to get started on organising a car-free day in your town or city.

What goes into a EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK national campaign? A lot of dedication, enthusiasm and collaboration, according to Petra Völkl, the National Coordinator for Austria. Petra recently shared her experiences of coordinating these efforts with us.

What activities are you most proud of from the Austrian EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK 2023?

We are proud that Innsbruck was a finalist for the EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK Award. We are really happy that Innsbruck sent in their application because they really do great work every year.

We are also proud of the very many small municipalities that participated. Towns of 2000 inhabitants, for example, don’t have a chance of being nominated for the Award and competing with cities such as Budapest. But they contributed greatly to the 635 Austrian municipalities and cities participating in EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK 2023. For such a small country like Austria, this amount is a great success!

What focus do you put on partnerships in preparing for EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK? 

We worked with many different partners, to reach different target audiences. It is always useful to link the campaign to national-level legislation changes or to promote new sustainable mobility strategies. For example, a great project from last year was the School Streets Campaign; following a change in the legislation that enables the simple implementation of school streets - together with a focus on 30km/h speed limits - the campaign helped gain a lot of interest and support among citizens. We also worked together with 135 health institutions via the Austrian Competence Centre for Climate and Health.

Interestingly, 75 regions (authorities responsible for several municipalities) participated in EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK 2023. This was partly due to Austria’s system of Climate and Energy Model Regions and Climate Adaptation Regions, which also made the most of the campaign to promote their initiatives. 

We always have great cooperation with the public transport companies; they provide free travel on car-free days and last year, Edgar (the campaign mascot) travelled around and everyone loved him!

In 2023 we worked with influencers for the first time. One of them, in particular, was ‘Austrian Kiwi’. His contribution was a really funny video – it was a great success. Everyone likes him because both young and old can relate to him. He has since then won lots of prizes as best influencer.

What challenges have you faced in preparing for EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK?

On 15 September (the day before the beginning of the week) the global climate strike (Fridays for Future) took place. Of course, we support this, but it took attention away from EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK. We had put a lot of work into a particularly impressive photo on a bridge in Vienna and it wasn’t as present as we’d hoped in the media. 

This year, we have another timing challenge with national elections taking place on 29 September. Considering the week takes place on 16 - 22 September, we will again have to compete for attention in the media.

Let’s focus on ‘Shared Public Space’ – the 2024 theme. What does this mean for Austria? 

It is all about the fair sharing of public space for everyone and quality of life in communities! It is about the use of eco-mobility and giving cyclists and pedestrians the space they need in public areas to get from A to B safely and comfortably. In times of climate change and long periods of heat, we also need places where we can relax and rest, where there is shade, a small fountain, water, trees and plants and, ideally, public toilets.

What can we expect from EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK in Austria this year?

In Austria, the 2024 campaign is taking place under the motto ‘MeterMachen’ (translates as ‘moving forward’), which focuses literally on moving around - so it is linked to Shared Public Space. Municipalities will implement temporary measures such as pop-up parks and cafes, school- or play streets, street art projects and markets. The EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK offers an ideal platform to demonstrate the variety of ways in which public space can be used fairly and sustainably to increase well-being and strengthen the sense of community. 

Active mobility, with a focus on walking, is the priority topic this year for Austria. Many people in Austria still use their cars, even for very short distances. However, those who cover these distances by bike or on foot are not only doing something good for the environment, but also for their own health. We want greater visibility for footpaths. 

We are also currently revising our technical guidelines for child-friendly mobility. Children and young people are the active travellers of today and tomorrow; they represent the future. After all, a child- and youth-friendly city is a city for everyone.

This year we will also cooperate with the Austrian Railway company and One Mobility because, on World Car-Free Day, on Sunday 22 September, we want to send a climate ticket-branded train from Vienna to Innsbruck. We hope that some influencers will take this train.

What potential is there for spreading awareness around this theme?

There is a lot of potential. This year, we will continue to work on a broad catalogue of actions towards a broad mobilisation of the population for the mobility transition towards climate neutrality. In addition, we have our active mobility programme (Klimaaktiv Mobil) for mobility management targeting municipalities, cities, regions, companies, tourist destinations, educational institutions and youth centres. To prepare for EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK 2024, we are using various formats such as webinars, videos with experts, competitions and awards, newsletters, round tables and much more.

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Petra Völkl has been the National Coordinator for Austria since 2004. She is a Spatial Planner at the Federal Ministry for Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology.

Learn more about EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK in Austria.