Urban Planning, Ecological Transition, Urban Services and Housing

From 16 to 22 September, Barcelona City Council and the city’s organisations and associations have planned over one hundred sustainable mobility and air quality promotion activities. This year’s activities have been adapted to comply with the Covid-19 health and prevention measures.

European Mobility Week is being held again this year, from 16 to 22 September, and Barcelona will be taking part in it with a programme of activities organised by the City Council and several organisations and associations in the city with the goal of improving air quality, reclaiming public spaces and promoting safe mobility in the city.

This year’s motto for the Week is “Be healthy. Move sustainably”, and its theme is “Health and safety with sustainable mobility”, with an emphasis on four issues: mental health, physical health, safety and the Covid-19 response.

Over a hundred activities, with all the Covid-19 health and prevention measures in place, will be held over a few days in various parts of the city.

In addition, Park(ing) Day, with around fifty planned activities, will be held as part of the event on Friday, 17 September.

It’s a day for raising awareness and standing up for a cause, in which various organisations, groups and members of the public will temporarily transform public parking spaces into parks, gardens and other types of public spaces, reclaiming them and calling for a city model centred on people and the environment. The event is held in various cities all around the world.

Furthermore, Wednesday, 22 September will be Car-Free Day, an event that is back this year with a great variety of events to be held on the streets. Traffic will be replaced with activities for all ages, including workshops, exhibitions, bike routes for children, line dancing, fun runs, Zumba and talks, among others.

Roads will be closed to traffic – with proper signposting – and the Guàrdia Urbana will arrange diversions as appropriate to minimise the impact of these closures.

The initiative is part of the municipal government’s aim of promoting safer and more sustainable mobility in the city, in accordance with the 2024 Urban Mobility Plan (PMU), which aims to promote cycling, walking and the use of public transport and reduce travel in private vehicles.

Sustainable mobility will thus be one of the cornerstones of the initiative that will be worked on throughout the week, raising awareness among the public and helping reduce traffic in public spaces to show what a greener, more comfortable and less polluted city would be like.

Barcelona’s European Mobility Week 2021 is part of European Mobility Week, an event in which hundreds of cities hold activities for a week to raise awareness of a healthier, safer and more sustainable mobility model that would benefit everyone. At European level, this year marks two decades of this focused week, which provides support for local initiatives working to make cities safer, greener and more inclusive and accessible.

Further information.