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City of Bonn

How traffic planning works

The  Mobility and Transport Department in the Urban Planning Office is responsible for transport planning with the following subject areas:

  • Mobility management and  local mobility/cycling/pedestrian traffic
  • Overall urban transport planning and  public transport
  • Transport planning in the city districts

The team develops transport planning for the entire city area - including many measures that contribute to the mobility transition in Bonn. This includes planning a network of cycle paths as well as the first phase of the Bonn  cable car project and increasing the frequency of local public transport services. All plans are coordinated with other departments, often with the Office for Citizen Services,  Department of Public Order and Road Traffic.

The  Civil Engineering Department is usually responsible for the implementation of the various measures, for example the marking of new  environmental lanes for bicycle and bus traffic or the further planning steps in the cable car project.

The focus of transport planning today is on pedestrians, cycling and local public transport.

Change in transportation planning

For a long time, municipal transportation planning was focused on the automobile. The goal was the car-friendly city that would offer unlimited mobility for all citizens. However, cities and municipalities increasingly suffered from the effects of more and more roads, traffic noise, parking lots and, later, the resulting environmental and air pollution.

The first rethink began in the 1970s. Pedestrian zones were set up, experiments were carried out with traffic calming measures, the bicycle was rediscovered as a means of transport, streetcar tracks were no longer torn out but new ones were laid.

In Bonn - as in many other cities - many residential areas are now designated as 30 km/h zones, there are large pedestrian zones, there is an efficient public transport network and a road network that is largely developed to meet demand.

Nevertheless, there is still a lot to do: Because traffic accounts for more than half a million kilograms of CO2 per year, more than a quarter of the city's total emissions, the city council has decided that at least 75 percent of journeys should be made using environmentally friendly and space-saving forms of mobility by 2030 . This will make the city quieter, cleaner and greener for the people of Bonn.

Focus on environmental networking

Today's transport planning focuses on the means of transportation of the so-called environmental network. These include above all

  • non-motorized transport (pedestrians and private or public bicycles),
  • local public transport (rail, streetcar, bus and cabs)
  • as well as car sharing and carpooling.


These forms of mobility are being strengthened in order to drive forward the mobility transition. The aim of the environmental alliance is to enable road users to travel comfortably within the environmental alliance and to be less dependent on their own car.

People in the city should suffer less from traffic noise and exhaust fumes.

Transport development plan: a powerful tool

Currently, the 2020 Transport Development Plan remains the foundation of transport planning in Bonn - supplemented and amended by many political decisions made in recent years.

The city of Bonn wants to make the traffic flowing through the city more environmentally friendly and sustainable. The 2020 Transport Development Plan(VEP 2020) is a concept for an integrated cross-sector action plan. One of the focal points of the plan is to promote and strengthen environmentally friendly modes of transport (walking, cycling and local public transport). At the same time, motorized private transport should continue to be able to contribute to the functioning of the city.

The VEP 2020 has laid the foundations for sustainable mobility for people and companies in the city that is adapted to ecological and economic conditions and is socially just.

Bonn 2020 transport development plan