Achieving climate goals in road traffic: Hamburg is sticking to cars

The piles of sand and gravel are piling up in the middle of the street, the new paving slabs are already lined up next to them to be laid. Along the red and white barriers, pedestrians and cyclists initially have to negotiate the intersection of Bahrenfelder Straße and Ottenser Hauptstraße in the Ottensen district of Hamburg, somewhat crowded at the edge. Cars can no longer get through here - and won't in the future either. The “Freiraum Ottensen” is currently taking shape.

When construction is completed next year, a full decade will have passed from the initial idea to completion. At that time, the district initiative “Design Ottensen” was launched to promote the transport transition on a small scale. At first it seemed that this could even succeed quickly: a test project was launched in 2020 in which some short, contiguous road sections were closed to car traffic. Then two businessmen filed a lawsuit to stop the attempt. Long participation formats followed, and the small-scale and complex renovation process only began this spring.

Nobody believes that the project can one day become a model for the transport transition. After all, there is hardly any place in Hamburg where the conditions for such a concrete ban on car traffic are better: the district is one of the Green Party strongholds; The streets in question are lined with individual shops and restaurants, in front of which one would expect a pedestrian zone elsewhere. So how is that supposed to happen elsewhere, without an eco-friendly environment and potential for strolling?

However, this question has become even more urgent since the majority of Hamburg's eligible voters voted in the “Hamburg Future Decision” almost a year ago that the city must be climate neutral by 2040. While there are tentative signs in some areas that CO₂ emissions will steadily fall to zero by then, the transport sector is the big problem child: at just under three million tonnes of CO₂, emissions caused by road transport are still barely noticeably below the 2007 level.

So is Hamburg's red-green Senate simply too car-friendly - or is it external circumstances, complaining residents or federal politics that are putting the brakes on what the Senate is increasingly emphasizing in defense of the accusation?

In fact, a lot of road traffic is regulated by federal law: the city cannot simply introduce a nationwide 30 km/h speed limit on Hamburg's streets, which would ensure reduced CO₂ emissions while driving. The same applies to the establishment of zero-emission zones: Starting from the city center, Hamburg would gradually ban the entry of gasoline or diesel cars to the outer city areas. If the city were a large zero-emissions zone in 2040, the climate target in the transport sector would be achieved.

However, for this to happen, CO₂ would first have to be included in the Immission Control Act at the federal level. In their “Catalog of Measures for a Climate-Neutral Hamburg” presented in June, the activists of the Hamburg Future Decision demand that the red-green Senate should campaign for this at the federal level. Given the transport policy of the CDU-led federal government, this is unlikely to achieve much at the moment.

Another suggestion that comes from the future decision and would be one of the bigger levers for getting the climate target in road traffic under control concerns parking spaces. “Those who have no problem finding a parking space are more likely to drive,” states the catalog of measures. If these were reduced in the city, car traffic in the city would decrease.

Here, however, the SPD and the Greens made a clear decision after the last general election at the beginning of 2025: The so-called “Parking Master Plan” is intended to prevent exactly that. As long as an investigation is currently underway into the exact number of all parking spaces in Hamburg, a “moratorium” is in effect: no parking space is currently allowed to be lost as a result of a construction project without the express permission of a Senate commission chaired by Mayor Peter Tschentscher (SPD).

Since the successful “decision on the future” last year, Hamburg must be climate neutral by 2040. The red-green Senate is skeptical - especially because federal policy is slowing things down. Is there something to it? And what would still be possible? We are exploring these questions in a series that will appear in loose succession until the one-year anniversary of the future decision on October 12th.

In addition, the alternative to the car, the use of public transport, is constantly being expanded, but nowhere near to the extent that was once promised: the Senate has buried the Hamburg Pact. By 2030, public transport should be available every five minutes from morning to evening - throughout the city.

Instead of vehemently reducing car traffic in the city to a minimum overall, the Senate is hoping that combustion cars will soon no longer drive through the city and will be replaced by electric cars. However, Hamburg can hardly enforce this; the federal and EU levels are responsible for this - which, however, is currently softening the strict ban on combustion engines for new cars planned for 2035.

The Senate is currently trying to counteract at least a little by significantly expanding the charging infrastructure in order to increase the attractiveness of electric cars. There should be 10,000 charging points in the city by 2030. Recently, the expansion has actually picked up speed and is now more than 5,500.

Is that enough? The city's Climate Advisory Board, a scientific body that evaluates the city's efforts, is skeptical. “The goals will not be achieved at the current pace,” advisory board member and traffic expert Philine Gaffron recently told the Hamburger Abendblatt. In February, the advisory board stated in a statement that an “integrated strategy of avoidance, relocation and decarbonization” is needed in the transport sector.