The new PMU 2025-2030 aims to achieve 85% of journeys on sustainable transport and cut the use of private vehicles
The proposal for the new Urban Mobility Plan 2025-2030 has been presented by the bodies in the Mobility Pact and aims to shift 250,000 work-related journeys on private transport onto public transport instead, particularly those connecting with the metropolitan area. The document is based around three areas: design and management of public space for safer, more efficient and sustainable mobility; a collective public transport system that attracts more passengers, and a reduction in dependency on private vehicles. This is the first time the plan has been developed based on an analysis of people’s reasons for travel, to identify more efficient solutions and mechanisms.
The Urban Mobility Plan is the roadmap that must define Barcelona’s mobility policies up until 2030. Its goal is to develop better mobility for people and better quality of life, guarantee the right to safe and sustainable mobility for all, speed up the decarbonisation of transport and contribute to efficiency in economic activity and personal development.
The proposal for the Urban Mobility Plan (PMU) 2025-2030, presented in the full session of the Mobility Pact, sets out the increase in sustainable forms of mobility, such as walking, public transport, cycling and personal mobility vehicles, to account for 85% of all travel, with a reduction in the use of private vehicles as a consequence.
The document also plans to cut the use of private vehicles from 19.9% to 15%, along with growth of up to 37.1% in public transport and an increase from 3.8% to 5.7% in journeys made by bikes and PMVs, in a context where mobility is set to increase by 12%, from 8.3 to 9.3 journeys a day.
Reasons for journeys
Analysing mobility in the city based on people’s reasons for making journeys has enabled work-related journeys to be identified, accounting for the greatest presence of private vehicles. Because of this, mobility policies for the coming years seek to reduce the use of cars by 25% in this sphere, shifting 250,000 work-related journeys made with private vehicles onto public transport instead, particularly connecting journeys.
The new PMU also seeks to double the volume of journeys made using bicycles and PMVs in mobility relating to education, as well as street-calming measures in areas with routes on foot for people making journeys linked to care and everyday tasks. It also prioritises the bus network to improve service and quality in work-related journeys and accessibility in public transport at medical and healthcare centres.
Three areas of the Urban Mobility Plan 2025-2030:
- Area 1: Safe, efficient and sustainable mobility
To protect pedestrians, with more and better protected public space that uses and organises all surface and road spaces through a layout to favour collective transport. The goal is to increase journeys on bikes and PMVs (+65%), and on foot (+12%), and halve the number of fatalities and severe injuries in road accidents.
With measures such as street-calming in 20 kilometres of the everyday mobility network, particularly areas around schools and medical and healthcare centres; widening of pavements that are not accessible (narrower than 1.8 metres); the improvement and enlargement of the Bicing cycling infrastructure, as well as the bus network.
- Area 2: A collective public transport system that attracts more passengers
The connection of the Trambaix and Trambesòs networks, plus the strengthening of the urban bus network, to consolidate and continue to develop urban express bus services and buses on demand, in addition to services at weekends and at night.
Improvement of infrastructures current in progress, such as the enlargement of the metro network and the creation of an infrastructure for interchanges in the inter-urban bus network.
- Area 3: Reduction of dependency on private vehicles and mitigation of external factors
To speed up the transition to a more rational mobility model that guarantees social equity, plus the implementation of measures to reduce the impact of private vehicles, advancing in decarbonisation and the reduction of CO2 emissions.
The aim is to continue working on areas with restricted access or the regulation of traffic, improving the technology of existing areas and establishing new ones. To foster and improve the capacity of the traffic control centre and boost the use of data. The plan also contemplates linking the use of private vehicles with parking and tax policies, discounting sustainable mobility, support for companies and facilities to develop sustainable mobility plans for their staff and users.
Administrative steps and approval of the PMU
The municipal government presented the Urban Mobility Plan 2025-2030 in the full session of the Mobility Pact. It was drafted over the last year, based on various themed sessions and the participation of organisations from all over the city. The document includes 84% of all the proposals made.
Now the PMU will have to be initially approved by the Commission for Ecology, Urban Planning, Mobility and Housing. A public scrutiny stage will follow, and the relevant steps to come up with a final document to be subjected to definitive approval.
Somebody carrying a child on a bike with a child seat
