German gov't aims to improve health and climate outcomes with pedestrian transport strategy
Clean Energy Wire
Germany’s government has agreed on the country’s first ever pedestrian transport strategy that aims to strengthen walking as a sustainable and healthy way of getting around. Transport minister Volker Wissing described walking as an “essential component of modern mobility,” adding that the strategy’s main purpose was to help federal states and local authorities designing pedestrian-friendly transport systems.
The strategy sets out to increase pedestrians’ safety and quality of life, as well as promoting climate protection and health. It argues that legal changes, new planning procedures, more funding, greater awareness, as well as research are required to make walking more attractive.
Around 60 million journeys are made entirely on foot every day in Germany, accounting for more than 20 percent of all journeys, according to the strategy. When taking into account the fact that people also often walk to and from other modes of transport, this share increases further. The ministry’s 2040 traffic forecast expects a five percent decline in walking, and the strategy says that “measures are needed to counteract this trend”.
The German Road Safety Council (DVR) said the strategy sent a clear signal for the “systematic and long-term promotion of pedestrian-friendly road traffic,” but it added that financial and human resources are required to implement clear measures. It called on Germany’s future government to follow-up on the strategy with a clear plan including a binding timetable. The organisation said that pedestrians are particularly at risk in road traffic, especially children, the elderly and people with limited mobility. In 2023 alone, 437 pedestrians lost their lives on German roads, while almost 30,000 were injured, DVR said.
Sustainable transport organisation VCD said that dense and safe footpath networks and a 30 km/h speed limit in urban areas are the “most important prerequisite” for the shift to environmentally-friendly transport and reducing traffic fatalities. “The pedestrian transport strategy raises awareness of this fact in transport policy,” VCD said.
