Mobility, Barcelona's tool for achieving sustainable development

Photograph: Unsplash

Mobility in the Greater Barcelona area is undergoing rapid change for a number of reasons: the need for digital transformation, the development of the metropolitan area, the pressure of climate change, and an ageing population.

Together with the effects of the recent Covid-19 pandemic, all these challenges make it necessary to implement a new mobility model in the Greater Barcelona metropolitan area.

Mobility is essential for redistributing opportunities and has a great impact on the quality of life of the people who live and work in the Greater Barcelona area. It also directly affects the city’s ability to attract talent and economic activity. Mobility must be sustainable, environmentally-friendly, affordable, accessible, inclusive, fluid, and economically efficient.

Barcelona is one of the leading cities in the world in urban mobility systems and is well set to meet the challenges of an increasingly digital future. Following the pandemic, however, it is necessary to treat mobility with appropriate rigor and propose a series of cross-cutting city initiatives ahead of the upcoming municipal elections.

According to the Deloitte Mobility Index, which analyzes mobility in 100 large global cities, Barcelona is highly rated in many of the indicators used. The city is a ‘global leader’ in vision-strategy and accessibility and a ‘top performer’ in modal diversity, air quality, customer satisfaction, and (freedom from) congestion. Even so, it still has a long way to go in matters relating to pollution, regulation, and digitalization.

At any rate, it is necessary to start a conversation about improvements to mobility, and measures must reflect as broad a consensus as possible. Decision-making must be based on data, while communication policies should be designed to avoid controversy. A group of more than 40 experts in mobility in the city have identified the challenges that the city must address in this area.

The proposals that Barcelona Global presents below have been drawn up on the basis of working groups composed of experts in urban mobility. They build on work originally presented in the document ‘Barcelona Global Challenge: the challenge of metropolitan and sustainable mobility’ in October 2020.

How the situation has evolved since 2020

Since 2020, changes in the way we see time and space have affected the way we move around. We are far from having achieved the model of efficient, sustainable, affordable, accessible, fluid and competitive mobility that Metropolitan Barcelona demands and deserves, but there have been advances in many areas. The following challenges, however, are still pending:

1. The between the metropolitan region and the municipality of Barcelona: Two years ago, we identified an urgent need to improve this aspect; much still needs to be done.
2. Politicization of mobility:The use of private vehicles, the low emissions zone, shared motorcycle systems, and VTCs are just some of the issues that have been subject to political controversy and even legal challenges. Strategic planning may help to prevent this reoccurring.
3. The ageing population requires a safer, more accessible model that ensures that no citizens, regardless of their age, become isolated due to lack of transport.
4. Congestion : The pandemic has caused public transport users to return to using private vehicles, which has increased congestion. Along with the effects of the 'tactical urbanism' carried out by the city, the current situation must now be analyzed with all the relevant actors from a metropolitan perspective.
5. Tourism : Barcelona and its metropolitan area need a model that enables tourists to get about sustainably and reach strategic parts of the metropolitan area such as the airport.
6. The Goods distribution sector which was mainly B2B with some B2C before the pandemic, has seen a real explosion of B2C. This is a sector that is here to stay and represents a real logistical challenge on which we need to act with sustainable and efficient solutions
7. Highway tolls in the metropolitan region have been eliminated without any rigorous alternatives being considered, both with regard to funding upkeep and their role in controlling access to Barcelona.
8. There is an urgent need for those working on regulating shared motorcycle systems to present proposals that also cover the entire metropolitan area.
9. The annulment of the Barcelona Low Emission Zone by the TSJC is in urgent need of further discussion.
10. Technology and use of the data: The rapid evolution of technology and the wealth of information provided by data should now help Barcelona to improve user-centered mobility.
11. NextGen Funds:We cannot miss the opportunity provided by the funds to electrify and digitalize metropolitan mobility systems.
12. The taxi sector and VTC:There is still much to do to modernize, pacify, and decarbonize the sector. Technology should be employed to accelerate these advances.
13. Metropolitan Bicing:It is surprising to note how the new metropolitan Bicing has not been connected to the existing system in Barcelona.
14. Teleworking:With the advent of teleworking, there is a great opportunity to improve planning and promote new travel patterns amongst people who could share transport. It also provides a chance to reduce congestion during the rush hour.
15. Renewable energies: Barcelona is already implementing the use of clean energy in public transport. Other sectors, such as the taxi sector, still need to make progress in this area.

Renewed consensus and main proposals

Mobility planning should be based on the following broad principles:

1. Metropolitan area: we need an agreement on mobility that covers the entire metropolitan region.
2. Intermodality and convenience to suit citizens’ needs.
3. Mobility funding and execution of commitments
4. Digitalization.
5. Sustainability.

Based on the consensus identified, we present a series of proposals aimed at achieving safe, sustainable, fluid, and user-centered mobility. It is necessary to:

1. Develop a body for governing mobility in the metropolitan area, a Metropolitan Mobility Agency, which is capable of promoting alliances and synergies amongst administrations, in relations with operators, and amongst operators themselves.
2. Promote intermodality through the design of infrastructures and public transport services.
3. Initiate a calm and serious debate on the advisability (or not) of controlling access to the city.
4. Learn from past experiences and implement new licensing motorcycle and bike sharing systems.
5. Ensure that the metropolitan Bicing system and the system in the city of Barcelona are managed coherently and compatibly.
6. Ensure that work on transforming the main axes in Barcelona takes into account the metropolitan area as a whole.
7. Promote fluid movement in the center by rigorously and selectively reviewing certain sections of existing bike lanes and ensuring punctual public transport.
8. Tackle the financing of mobility policies and especially public transport and new mobility infrastructures.
9. Execute all investment commitments in public transport.
10. Create a transparency website on the state of investments in mobility in the metropolitan region of Barcelona.
11. Advance decisively in the total digitalization of metropolitan mobility by means of MaaS technology.
12. Commitment to decarbonize 100% of the public transport fleet, VTCs and goods delivery vehicles.
13. Facilitate the financing and deployment of electric charging infrastructure in the city's public and private car parks.
14. Execute the agreement on sustainable last-mile distribution without delay.