Umweltbundesamt
Click to enlargeSustainable mobility connects people, towns and places. During European Mobility Week (EMW) from 16 to 22 September 2022, communities throughout Germany and all over Europe will put their creativity and resourcefulness on display to show that sustainable mobility can create ties between us in many – and better – ways.
Dirk Messner, President of the German Environment Agency (UBA) says: “After the coronavirus pandemic kept us apart for more than two years, the theme of this year’s European Mobility Week is “better connections”. Sustainable mobility offers many opportunities to improve the connections of people and places and to link mobility offers and needs. The creative actions during the EMW show what the transformation of transport in municipalities and districts can look like, and they are fun to do.”
Some 144 cities and districts in Germany are participating in European Mobility Week 2022. There are 52 non-municipal actors, including associations, universities, transport associations and companies, which will start their own MOBILITYACTIONS. Together with local residents, actions will try out how streets can be used in different ways and how mobility can be changed as a result. In Karlsruhe, 66 streets are being used as temporary play streets for different types of recreation as part of the city-wide participation campaign "Karlsruhe spielt". The cities of Chemnitz, Stuttgart and Nuremberg are planning parallel tram night rides including text readings. The district leadership in Kassel invites citizens to engage in dialogue on the bus. Norderstedt will celebrate with a car-free street festival and big music parade. In addition, municipalities all over Germany will be using support materials from the EMW national coordination office at the German Environment Agency. From Bensheim to Buchholz in der Nordheide to Friedrichshafen, participants will meet mascots Edgar and Edda, play the popular car park memory game and try out numerous other services for hire.
The first “Day of the Rail” will also take place on 16 and 17 September, in partnership with European Mobility Week. More than 300 on-site and online events across Germany offer the chance to have a look behind the scenes of railway companies and find out about career opportunities in the industry.
This year’s many actions and variety of programmes throughout the country will shed light on sustainable mobility in municipalities in all its facets for local citizens to see up close.
Further information:
European Mobility Week (EMW) is a European campaign which gives local authorities from all over Europe a chance to raise citizens’ awareness of sustainable mobility. Measures will be established in the week of 16-22 September and beyond which will lastingly make local transport more climate and environmentally friendly. Actions will be launched in more than 2300 towns and cities across Europe. UBA has been the coordinator of EMW in Germany since 2016.
The “Day of the Rail” is coordinated by the Tag der Schiene non-profit transport association. As with European Mobility Week, there is no central organiser for the Day of the Rail as the campaign offers all interested parties, companies, municipalities, clubs and associations the opportunity to present and celebrate all aspects of the rail industry with their own actions and events on 16/17 September 2022.
The UBA’s motto, For our environment (“Für Mensch und Umwelt”), sums up our mission pretty well, we feel. In this video we give an insight into our work.
