Sustainable, safe urban mobility and traffic management are of major importance and also a great challenge, particularly in a growing city like Frankfurt. A traffic hub and financial centre, Frankfurt is also a compact city of short distances in which urban traffic space is limited and, even today, many different uses are competing for the space available.

Frankfurt, always a national and international passenger and freight traffic hub, has developed over time into an important centre for air, rail, road and inland waterways transport. The core city of the FrankfurtRheinMain metropolitan region, with its very wide range of job opportunities and services, is also closely entwined with the surrounding area. Commuters pouring into Frankfurt transform the city into a metropolis during the day, while citizens commute into the outlying region.

In peak congestion times traffic reaches, and also partly exceeds, the capacity limits of the transport system. The traffic-induced environmental impact negatively affects the quality of life and amenity value, particularly along the main roads. Ongoing globalisation, the trend towards urbanisation and the digitalisation of society are becoming the main focus of traffic planning, giving rise to demanding new tasks. At the same time there is enhanced ecological and health awareness and besides demographic change, ever-increasing individualisation is leading to the evolution of new consumption, work and lifestyle patterns.

It is a question of reacting in time to future challenges, setting courses of action and implementing strategic goals, all in the framework of a sustainability-oriented mobility strategy. One major challenge will be to keep Frankfurt a compact and, at the same time, a green city in which traffic only marginally affects the quality of life and human health but where mobility in all its forms remains equally possible for everyone.

Sustainable urban development must reconcile completely different interests and needs and amalgamate traffic, urban and environmental planning.