German Transport Planning Award 2024 announced

Every two years, the Association for Urban, Regional and State Planning SRL and the ecological transport club VCD award the German Transport Planning Prize 2024. Nominations for the prize are currently being accepted. The deadline for submissions is May 31, 2024.

The SRL and VCD are awarding the German Transport Planning Prize for the eighth time. The award ceremony is planned for October 2024 in Frankfurt am Main, submissions are possible until the end of May. The organizers of the award want to promote an interdisciplinary, integrated planning culture at the municipal level. The theme for the German Transport Planning Award 2024 is “Liveable streetscapes through adapted speeds”.

The aim of the award is to recognize innovative solutions for speed reduction in cities and municipalities. Good examples demonstrate integrated traffic planning, increase the quality of life locally, improve the environmental situation and have a high design quality. This can be seen, for example, in the “Liveable cities through appropriate speeds” initiative, in which over 1,000 cities and municipalities with more than 40 million inhabitants are participating. The lighthouse project makes it easier for them to designate 30 km/h zones. The SRL and VCD have already been able to prove that lower speeds improve the quality of life for everyone. These and similar efforts should be recognized.

Projects that have already been implemented and traffic experiments from the years 2018 to 2023 can be submitted for the German Transport Planning Award 2024. Temporary solutions and other innovative approaches can also be submitted as long as they lead to the enhancement of public space. The focus should always be on the added value of 30 km/h.

The jury will use the following criteria for evaluation:

• Increased space justice
• Quality of stay
• Traffic safety
• High degree of transferability
• Participation
• Possible evaluation
• Achievement of acceptable speeds

The Association for Urban, Regional and State Planning is the professional association of all those working in spatial planning. At the same time, it is an interdisciplinary network that aims to promote integrated spatial planning. The German Transport Planning Award 2024 is the responsibility of the “People and Transport Forum” specialist group, which aims to promote the integration of transport and urban planning and make a contribution to sustainable mobility development. The ecological transport club VCD also pursues environmentally friendly, healthy and safe mobility. It has been campaigning for fair and sustainable coexistence for all people on the road since 1968 – regardless of how they travel.

The normal local speed limit in Germany is 50 kilometers per hour. However, more and more cities and local authorities are campaigning to reduce this to 30 km/h in order to minimize exhaust fumes and noise and increase safety. It is actually difficult to reduce the speed on main roads. However, with the help of the “Liveable Cities” initiative, with founding cities such as Freiburg and Leipzig, it has been possible to prevail against federal law and impose a 30 km/h speed limit in urban areas. This allows cities and local authorities to choose the appropriate speed themselves.

The initiative is committed to creating the legal challenges at federal level to impose a 30 km/h speed limit locally in urban areas where necessary. This requires changes to the Road Traffic Act and the Road Traffic Regulations. At present, 30 km/h speed limits can only be imposed on main roads with complications and only in limited sections – for example in front of schools, daycare centers or retirement homes – by means of individual regulations. This results in a patchwork of speeds.

Over 380 cities and municipalities, led by different political groups, have already joined the initiative. The aim is to make cities more liveable and to align traffic with the city, not the other way around. The Federal Environment Agency even goes one step further: it recommends introducing a uniform speed limit of 30 km/h in towns and cities throughout Germany.

Most recently, the Hanseatic City of Lübeck received the German Transport Planning Award in 2022, which was presented in Berlin under the motto “Quality of proximity – attractive stay and safe access to district and town centers”. Lübeck’s entry, the Beckergrube traffic trial, showed how planned changes can be made tangible and understandable. The design by the landscape architecture firm 1:1 landskab from Valby in Denmark was the winner. The aim was to make the urban space in the historic old town more resilient to the effects of climate change. New trees will create a canopy and the road surface is to be standardized from summer 2024. The design includes multifunctional lanes for deliveries, cab and disabled parking spaces as well as bicycle parking facilities, non-consumption seating and catering areas. A small leisure area with a dance floor and grandstand, an urban gardening raised bed and a food sharing cabinet are also included at the request of the residents.

The project was integrated into the framework plan with a mobility concept for the city center and thus served as a building block for a changed understanding of mobility. The jury praised the broad participation and the temporary conversion, which demonstrated the impact of the measure. It demonstrated the intensive use of the newly gained urban space and activated even those with reservations. “These are the conditions for climate-friendly cities of the future, and the Lübeck project shows how to meet them. This is how transport planning becomes future-proof,” said the 2022 jury.

Read more: An exciting example of future-oriented transport planning from Norway can be found here.