Barcelona Global calls for a grand pact for sustainable mobility

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l private sector steps forward to demand from administrations a grand metropolitan pact that guarantees a sustainable mobility model and allows for the future development of Greater Barcelona. The objective is for companies and institutions to roll up their sleeves together to turn Barcelona into a great urban laboratory that is a global reference and is based on the intensive use of new technologies ---such as new 5G connectivity and big data--- and investments in public transport. The goal is to achieve a city with fewer emissions, more intermodal, and that combines sustainable and connected private vehicles with collective transport and new models of personal and shared mobility.

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"We cannot allow, as a city, for this issue to be the subject of political controversy or the delay of long-proposed solutions," warns the Barcelona Global association in a report in which more than sixty experts, companies, and institutions such as Seat, FGC, Saba, Repsol Foundation, RACC, ISGlobal, Abertis, and Renfe have participated.

The main demand of Barcelona Global is consensus, public-private collaboration, and the firm commitment of public administrations to complete major pending infrastructures such as Metro Line 9 or the commuter rail network, key for optimal functioning of public transport. It also proposes limiting the use of private vehicles "with intelligent regulation of access to Barcelona" through the implementation of an urban toll on entry roads that would also improve the financing of the collective transport network and regulate flows. This type of toll has already been implemented in cities such as London and Copenhagen.

According to the president of Barcelona Global, Aurora Catà ---partner at Seeliger y Conde---, "it is necessary to implement a new mobility model for Barcelona based on a long-term vision that ensures sustainable, safe, efficient, and accessible mobility for all." Catà emphasizes that "this new vision must necessarily be metropolitan," which is why the ideal tool to channel this grand pact is the Autoritat del Transport Metropolità (ATM).

It is necessary to implement a new mobility model for Barcelona based on a long-term vision that ensures sustainable, safe, efficient, and accessible mobility for all.

The association led by Mateu Hernández has developed an action plan with fifteen concrete measures that it urges to be given a timeline and budget. Barcelona Global considers that to execute this plan, which must avoid local and specific solutions, a long-term vision focused on nine major elements of consensus must be had: the new mobility must be conceived from a metropolitan perspective; based on public-private collaboration; on a rapid execution of pending investments; on an intensive use of technology; on the regulation of private vehicles; on the improvement of the goods distribution system; on taking advantage of European Union funds for the energy transition (New Green Deal); on integrating all types of alternatives or new forms of mobility; and on turning Barcelona into a great urban laboratory of reference.

Based on these nine foundations on which consensus must be built, Barcelona Global has proposed fifteen concrete proposals for action.

1. Incorporation of the State into the ATM and involvement of the private sector in this managing entity.
2. Accelerate investments in public transport, both in the metro and in the railway network.
3. Implement an urban toll to regulate access and finance collective transport.
4. Create metropolitan car parks at train stations (Park & Ride).
5. Promotion of teleworking and commuting plans to workplaces.
6. Advance in reducing speed in the city center.
7. Convert car parks and stations into hubs of services for mobility.
8. Use big data as a tool to plan and manage mobility.
9. Make Barcelona a benchmark in shared mobility.
10. Develop a MaaS (Mobility as a Service) platform to improve efficiency, service quality, and intermodality.
11. Rejuvenate the vehicle fleet and advance its decarbonization, both private and public service fleets.
12. Update the taxi service in Barcelona.
13. Create an urban network that facilitates and regulates the distribution of goods in an efficient and non-polluting way.
14. Tourism must be an activity that is fully integrated into this new model of metropolitan mobility.
15. Make Barcelona a great urban laboratory of reference in global mobility.