Photo credit: Burgas Municipality
Every year from 16 to 22 September, European Mobility Week puts people first. Across Europe, towns and cities celebrate and encourage cleaner, safer and more inclusive ways to move. The week culminates on Car-Free Day, when streets open to walking, cycling and community life.
Mobility for everyone
The 2025 theme, Mobility for Everyone, focused on making transport accessible, affordable and fair. Many residents still face high costs, poor connections or barriers linked to disability or digital exclusion. Transport poverty occurs when high costs, limited options or poor connectivity restrict access to jobs, education and essential services. This year, cities showed practical steps that leave no one behind.
Apostolos Tzitzikostas, Commissioner for Sustainable Transport and Tourism, says, “Mobility is not a privilege, it is a right and everyone deserves safe, affordable, and sustainable transport. Many people still face barriers to reaching their jobs, schools, doctors, and other essential services. The 2025 European Mobility Week is our chance to show how transport in our cities can be fair and accessible, leaving no one behind.”
The goal is clear: to inspire more people to travel by public transport, walking or cycling, while highlighting the environmental and social benefits of greener mobility.
Design for all in Barcelona
In Barcelona, streets turned into car-free play zones where children could cycle and explore safely. Residents joined a hands-on workshop to make reflective items for safer journeys, while a pop-up stand offered e-bike try-outs and practical maintenance tips. The programme also featured a Sant Antoni by Bike tour, a community bicycle circulation study, and a board game that made air-quality science simple and engaging.
Inclusive mobility starts with design. When services, vehicles, infrastructure and information are conceived with users in mind, the result is a network that works for everyone. People with physical, sensory or cognitive impairments can move independently and confidently when access is built into the fabric of the system.
Mobility is not a privilege, it is a right and everyone deserves safe, affordable, and sustainable transport.
Accessibility runs through every stage of the journey. Vehicles across public transport, ride hailing, demand responsive and shared services are designed for easy boarding and safe travel. Stations and stops, mobility hubs, pavements and cycle lanes feature ramps, tactile surfaces, clear signage, appropriate lighting, stable surfaces, suitable dimensions and effective drainage. Digital touchpoints match this standard, with intuitive ticketing, journey planning and real-time information. Clear and consistent communication ties it all together, using plain language and familiar symbols that work for people with sensory and cognitive impairments. Accessibility is a core quality of good urban transport, not an add-on.
Diversity, Affordability & Reliability in Essen
An inclusive system gives people real choices. A balanced mix of fixed route public transport, shared services, carpooling, demand responsive options, walking and cycling allows residents to match trips to their needs. In dense districts and dispersed communities alike, seamless connections and the right blend of modes expand coverage, cut journey times and reduce transport poverty.
In Essen, the streets around the Grillo-Theatre became a colourful climate garden, an inviting place to pause, learn and explore sustainable travel. Residents joined the 8 km Fancy Women Bike Ride, encouraging women of all ages to enjoy cycling, while others took part in senior friendly walking tours and family rides. Throughout the week, people tried cargo bikes and on-demand shuttles, experiencing a broader mix of everyday options.
Affordability underpins access. When authorities and operators align on structural discounts, targeted subsidies, mobility budgets, solidarity pricing or community bike leasing, everyday travel becomes manageable for households while maintaining uptake across the network. Reliability makes these options viable. Frequent, predictable services supported by clear, real-time information help people plan with confidence and choose efficient, sustainable ways to move.
Involving the whole community in Burgas
Mobility is experienced differently across communities, so good solutions start with broad engagement. When residents, operators, civil society and administrations work together, cities surface real needs and design options that people will actually use. Public authorities can act as catalysts for innovation, creating the conditions for cross sector collaboration and local experimentation. Instruments such as the Social Climate Fund help cities pilot and scale measures that make sustainable travel easier and fairer.
Grounding this work in local context builds acceptance. Inclusive participation, consultation and co-creation with neighbourhood associations and representative groups strengthens trust and targets support to those facing transport poverty or vulnerability. Respect for social and cultural norms ensures services feel welcoming and become part of everyday life.
In Burgas, Car-Free Day came with a city-wide celebration. Residents joined free walking tours and settled in for an outdoor cinema marathon in the park, while local artists turned bus stops into pop-up stages. Road safety activities engaged both drivers and pedestrians, and an exhibition showcased how the city is transforming public transport and expanding its bike sharing system.
Crossing borders in the Luxembourg, France and Germany triangle
Travel patterns ignore administrative lines, so planning should too. When neighbouring cities, regions and authorities collaborate, people experience a seamless network that reflects how they actually move. A functional urban area lens strengthens multimodality across city centres and peri-urban areas, and analysis that includes care related trips, not only work commutes, ensures smaller and rural communities are considered from the outset.
Cross-border public transport often faces different vehicle and power systems, ticketing and tariffs, and varying terrain. In the Luxembourg, France and Germany triangle, Le Club de la Grande Vitesse Ferroviaire highlighted underused or discontinued links that could act as relief routes when main lines are disrupted. During European Mobility Week, partners ran information events on barriers such as differing electrification, signalling and operating rules.
Apply for the European Mobility Week Award
Each year, the European Mobility Week Award recognises local authorities that have excelled in raising awareness about sustainable urban mobility. The award is directly related to local authorities’ active participation in the campaign, which includes organising activities focused on sustainable mobility during the main event week from 16-22 September, implementing one or more permanent transport measures, and holding a Car-Free Day.
Did your city celebrate European Mobility Week? Apply for the European Mobility Week Award by 31 October. For more information: https://mobilityweek.eu/about-mobilityawards/
