It is the European Mobility Week!

EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK is the European Commission’s leading campaign aimed at raising awareness about sustainable urban transportation. It promotes a shift in behaviour towards active travel, public transit, and other environmentally friendly and smart transport options.

The theme of this year is “Shared Public Space”

With more than 70% of Europeans residing in urban areas, many cities face a public space shortage. Ensuring enough room for all individuals, modes of transport, and activities promotes social equity, enhances road safety, reduces noise and air pollution, and improves overall quality of life. Thus, sharing public space provides numerous advantages for society.

Since vulnerable road users represent 70% of fatalities in urban traffic, it is crucial to prioritise them when distributing public space. To encourage walking and cycling, there needs to be more well-designed infrastructure and traffic regulations that give precedence to pedestrians and cyclists.

The primary objective of European Mobility Week is to encourage alternatives to car ownership and raise awareness about various transportation options that can serve the same purposes. These options include asset-sharing (such as bicycles, cars, and e-scooters), cargo bikes, public transport, and especially walking. Emphasising sustainable transport modes and the concept of “use it – don’t own it” helps alleviate road congestion, reduce reliance on cars, and minimise the space required for parking personal vehicles.

1,857 towns and cities from 42 different countries are participating

This initiative includes individuals from Iceland to Azerbaijan, from Portugal to Ukraine, and even beyond Europe in Argentina, Ecuador, Japan, and Peru.

Brussels residents and visitors come together annually to enjoy Car-Free Sunday, which features a vibrant lineup of events and activities and boosts local businesses. On this day, children, pedestrians, and cyclists take over the streets, turning the entire capital into a massive street festival. While nearly 2,000 towns and cities participate in EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK annually, the Brussels Capital Region hosts the largest car-free event in Europe!

In a 2018 opinion survey, over 90% of residents expressed support for Car-Free Sunday. Additionally, in a citizens’ panel conducted by Brussels Mobility the same year, the top three priorities for improving mobility in the city were the creation of more high-quality cycling paths, an expanded cycling network linking the suburbs to the city, and the introduction of a monthly Car-Free Sunday.

With the help of three European think-tanks

The campaign is coordinated by a European Secretariat, which includes DG MOVE, National Coordinators from various European countries (representing national ministries and agencies), as well as mobility and communications experts from three local authority networks:

1. Eurocities: the largest network of European cities, consisting of over 200 major cities and representing more than 150 million people across 38 countries, both within and beyond the European Union. Headquartered in Brussels, it publishes extensively on the topic of urban mobility while also supporting nine other mobility projects, including CIVITAS (one of the flagship programmes helping the European Commission achieve its ambitious mobility and transport goals, and in turn those in the European Green Deal).


1. ICLEI Europe: Local Governments for Sustainability, founded in 1990 as the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives, is the world’s leading network of local and regional governments committed to sustainable development.


1. POLIS: the leading network of European cities and regions working together to develop innovative technologies and policies for local transport.

What are the other sustainable mobility think-tanks in Brussels ?

Transport & Environment is a green transport generalist think-tank (working on eleven different topics). It is Europe’s leading advocate for clean transport.

On the topic of urban mobility, Clean Cities aims “to spark a healthy competition between Europe’s city leaders to go further and faster in the race to transition to zero-emission mobility by 2030.” MobiliseYourCity is a “global Partnership of over a hundred partners for sustainable urban mobility planning,” including 74 member cities, with a combined population of over 130 million people, and 16 member countries. UITP, the International Association of Public Transport, is the only worldwide network aiming to bring together all public transport stakeholders and all sustainable transport modes. Finally, the EU Urban Mobility Observatory “facilitates the exchange of information, knowledge, and experience in the field of sustainable urban mobility.”

The European Cyclists’ Federation is a Brussels-based independent non-profit association dedicated to achieving more and better cycling for all in Europe.

The Platform for electromobility promotes electromobility and strives to develop solutions to electrify European transport.

And finally, ERTRAC (the European Road Transport Research Advisory Council) is the European Technology Platform (ETP) for road transport. Supported by the European Commission, its mission is to provide a framework to focus the coordinated efforts of public and private resources on necessary research activities. These initiatives include research avenues such as Freight decarbonization or Light Electric Vehicles.