Barcelona Metropolis

The current mobility model remains a major challenge for urban quality of life, decarbonisation and even climate change adaptation. The solutions are well known, yet the transformation is happening far too slowly – a paradoxical reality for a metropolis that is otherwise innovative and a leader in so many sectors.

Mobility is a major contributor to global warming and significantly impacts urban quality of life, generating pollution, noise and exacerbating the urban heat island effect. Decarbonising mobility is not just a matter of replacing the current fleet of combustion-engine vehicles with electric ones – it is also essential to reduce their overall numbers. Cars consume vast resources and generate environmental impacts throughout their entire life cycle. They also require large amounts of paved space for roads and segregated infrastructure, creating both physical and social barriers. Therefore, beyond electrification, the priority must be to promote active mobility and public transport.

We live in a highly centralised region. The Barcelona metropolitan area is home to 43% of Catalonia’s population within just 2% of its land area. More strikingly, most of these residents are concentrated in a third of this space, forming a very dense and dynamic conurbation. This concentration creates agglomeration economies that attract significant economic activity and services, generating a constant daily demand for mobility across the region.

This area has a high level of internal mobility. However, due to its density and the availability of public transport, much of this movement is carried out using sustainable modes. Nearly 90% of daily trips within Barcelona – and 80% across the entire metropolitan area – are environmentally friendly. Yet, cities depend on much larger surrounding areas, where mobility increasingly favours cars. Of the 800,000 vehicles that circulate in Barcelona each day, 500,000 come from outside the city. This trend becomes more pronounced the further one moves from the metropolitan area and is particularly critical for peripheral connections.

On the one hand, this constant flow of traffic congests the city centre, with all the associated impacts and disrupts the efficiency of sustainable transport systems. Congestion is a key barrier to change, as it hinders efforts to promote alternatives to the very mode of transport that must be reduced. On the other hand, any interventions in this area have significant repercussions across the wider region, where there are fewer sustainable options and a greater reliance on cars. “Metro in Barcelona and road network in Catalonia” – a phrase often used in an oversimplified way, but one that accurately reflects the country we have been building for the past 60 years.

This has also had clear urban planning consequences, promoting a more sprawling and fragmented model that has only generated more traffic. Urban sprawl, a common feature of metropolitan regions, consumes vast amounts of agricultural and natural land, with significant consequences for decarbonisation. In fact, one of the European Union’s strategic sustainable development goals is to achieve no net land take by 2050 – in other words, zero urban expansion.

All of this underscores the urgent need for major structural measures to shift course. This article outlines several proposals to accelerate this transformation. They may not be immediate or easy, but they are essential to ensuring a sustainable future and a modern, competitive metropolis.

Development and public transport

The concept of transit-oriented development (TOD), which focuses on compact growth around public transport, has broad technical and social support and has been a central theme in territorial and mobility planning for the past few decades. Still, progress has been slow, especially when it comes to high-capacity public transport infrastructure, such as rail systems. In many cases, it feels as though both urban planning and infrastructure development continue with a “business as usual” approach.

In response to the housing crisis, the only way to achieve a connected and sustainable development model is by enabling land development around railway lines or areas with good public transport accessibility. Paris, for example, is already doing this, with 68 new railway stations in the Île-de-France region and surrounding land development: “New stations, new neighbourhoods,” as the slogan goes. So, the strategy is clear: a well-structured public transport network and development around transport hubs.

The situation with the Rodalies rail system [the regional commuter rail network] in Catalonia is undoubtedly complex. While significant progress is being made, it will still take time for these improvements to materialise. In the meantime, we must make the most of existing infrastructure and unlock as much land as possible within a 15-minute walk (1.2 km) of public transport stations. This could involve integrating or covering infrastructure where it allows for development next to – or even above – stations. There are many ways to coexist with segregated railway lines without the need for costly undergrounding. We must be pragmatic while also championing flagship projects that set a precedent. Urban density, often stigmatised, is a key driver of more sustainable mobility.

In 2026, the Catalonia Transport Infrastructure Plan reaches its final horizon. We must renew our planning with a strong commitment to public transport, ensuring it becomes the backbone of the mobility network. Ultimately, a clear and feasible roadmap for building this network – alongside a bold urban development strategy around it – is essential.

Emergency plan for surface public transport

A bus like the H6 in Barcelona carries 10 million passengers a year – one-fifth of the passenger numbers of Metro Line 4 – but at a significantly lower cost. In a city hemmed in between Collserola and the coast, where mobility is largely cross-city, running between Llobregat and Besòs, building segregated infrastructure is both technically complex and financially demanding. That’s why surface public transport must be our priority. The infrastructure is already there: our streets.

But it is not just the road network that needs large-scale change; transformation must also happen at the urban level. We need to structure mobility spaces and establish clear rules and relationships – a framework that does not depend on individual projects. In 1984, Barcelona City Council published a series of technical articles by mobility and urban planning experts, known as the Pla de vies [Road Plan]. Its aim was to determine how Barcelona could absorb the increased mobility demand created by major new road infrastructures while maintaining a coherent urban logic. Since the 1980s, this set of principles has shaped the Barcelona model, successfully balancing traffic flow with pedestrian-friendly spaces and amenities.

It is now evident that this approach must be rethought. We need a new structure and new guiding principles – a new Pla de vies, but this time one designed around surface public transport.

The potential of active mobility

The cities in the Barcelona metropolitan area are easy to get around, with a very high share of internal journeys made on foot. In Barcelona, it’s easy to hit 10,000 steps on any given day. This is what defines a city: proximity, resilience and a quality that many other cities would envy. We must preserve and build on this great asset.

However, there are limits to how far you can walk, and here is where, towards the end of the 20th century, motorcycles became a predominant form of transport. They are relatively cheap, fast (enjoying the same priority as cars, with a lenient penalty system), and offer plentiful parking options. But they also bring a number of drawbacks: emissions, noise, accidents and the occupation of pavements, and so on.

The bicycle, both traditional and electric, is the vehicle that can offer the best individual mobility without creating the externalities linked to induced demand. It shouldn’t replace the motorbike, but it can certainly have a significant impact on its modal share. Barcelona has developed a steadily expanding network of bike lanes in recent years. Now, the focus must be on improving their quality, capacity and metropolitan connectivity. The AMB’s Bicivia network, for example, is one of the most successful initiatives: it includes bike lanes connecting neighbouring towns, although there are often interruptions caused by road infrastructure. This needs to be prioritised because the metropolitan area is relatively compact, and most journeys are under 10 km. It’s clear that cycling isn’t for everyone, but there is considerable room for growth.

We need a metropolitan network of “bike highways” but also large transversal corridors within Barcelona to allow this mode of transport to cross the city effectively. It’s clear that many of the city’s bike lanes are congested at rush hour. Therefore, we must identify corridors to help support and expand the network.

Reducing traffic by 10% in the city centre

Traffic is a non-linear phenomenon: just as small increases can lead to congestion, a slight reduction can significantly improve both public transport and traffic flow. Our goal should be to cut traffic by 10 to 15%, so that sustainable mobility measures can be implemented more easily.

We need targeted interventions that focus solely on motorised private transport, while benefiting the more sustainable modes that compete with it. Regulating for congestion by limiting overall capacity is not ideal and can have significant side effects. Mechanisms like pricing – through parking fees or toll systems – are more effective and direct. In Barcelona, for instance, the regulation of parking zones helped rationalise traffic. Yet, there’s still room to do more, particularly in the green zones for residents, which currently cost just 20 cents on weekdays.

Cities like Stockholm and London have introduced urban toll systems, reducing traffic by 10% to 20%, with New York being the most recent example. Toll systems help to manage traffic flow and, at the same time, generate funds that can be reinvested into sustainable mobility. The European Union has urged Spain to implement a new toll plan, and large urban conurbations must develop a strong proposal in this regard.

So far, policies aimed at rationalising the use of private vehicles at a regional level have focused on Barcelona’s central road network, where the traffic-calming measures aren’t ideal for this purpose. It’s like trying to stop a river once it reaches the sea. Reducing road capacity is more effective if it’s done earlier. Paradoxically, segregated roads are better equipped to handle congestion than urban grids. For example, the city of Zurich has a mechanism that regulates access traffic at rush hour, specifically to prioritise public transport. Ring roads provide an opportunity to regulate access. In essence, rationalising traffic levels and reducing congestion should be a single goal.