Top 5 Pedestrian City Initiatives in Europe
A core pillar of smart cities relies on mobility solutions and how citizens can benefit from these. Cities, by default, tend to be overcrowded with intense traffic that generates pollution and harmful emissions, along with blockages that affect whole city areas.
Many cities have developed and implemented local strategies to reduce car use and promote a wider array of cleaner, more sustainable transportation options, while also investing in larger numbers of dedicated pedestrian areas, particularly for city centres.
Over the past few years we’ve seen a number of options that shift the focus from cars to the likes of bicycles and electric scooters, often through app-driven sharing options that have become a new standard in cities across Europe.
Bucking the trend in 2017, Oslo kick-started an initiative to make its city centre car-free, having so far removed 90% of its on-street parking, fully pedestrianising entire streets, and banning cars altogether in some areas. It’s proven a hugely successful example and, today their city centre has blossomed into new life as a result - contradicting nay-sayers who wrongly predicted that taking cars away from the city centre would kill the local economy.
Also worthy of note is that over 75% of the urban innovations that have successfully reduced car use were led by a local city government. Through a combination of these tactics and the use of emerging technologies, we are now able to fully utilise digital processes to create additional solutions that can decrease car use in favour of more sustainable options. These also help us meet emission targets and create more liveable cities through increased quality of life, something that all local authorities should absolutely make a top priority.
The future of smart communities belongs to their citizens, and today we take a look at the Top 5 cities (including Oslo) putting people at the heart of their city centres.
1. Oslo: Car-free City Centre
Oslo is serious about making its city as car-free as possible, and over the past few years they’ve strategically removed cars from the two largest city areas, with additional schools and residential areas nearby. Back in 2019, Oslo also became the first city to record zero pedestrian or cyclist deaths thanks to this strategy.
2. Amsterdam: City of Bikes
Amsterdam has long been a shining example of a city where bikes are preferred to cars at any moment. While hardly a new player, their proposition has long been a model for other European cities to follow. And the numbers can also do they talking: while cars are in fact not banned in Amsterdam, only a quarter of trips in the city are done via this mode of transport.
3. London’s Congestion Charge
It’s been almost 20 years since Greater London introduced this fee for cars in the city centre, originally set at £5 for just the city centre and today going up to £15 for a single day in extended areas of the city. 80% of revenue raised from this charge is used for public transport investment, something that more and more cities have adopted since in order to fund their smart city projects. In addition to this, London has seen a tremendous increase in the use of bicycles in the city, with more and more dedicated bike lanes being built - and one only has to take a walk around its bustling streets to see how many of them have a strong focus on pedestrians.
4. Mobility services for commuters
In the Dutch city of Utrecht, a program that ensured free public transport passes and a private shuttle bus to connect transit stops with workplaces for employees, achieved a 37% reduction in the share of commuters travelling into the city centre by car.
5. Apps for sustainable mobility
As mobile phones have an increasing role in strategies to reduce car use, the Italian city of Bologna has developed a gamification app to encourage walking around the city. People can keep track of their own mobility and gain points for walking, biking and using public transport, eventually benefitting from a wide choice of rewards from local businesses.
