# Berlin is considering going car free

By [Brandon Donnelly](https://brandondonnelly.com) · 2022-01-19

berlin, car-free, car-free-zone, london, manhattan, mobility, new-york, urbanism, walkable

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![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/d659b4113f715ff82d3094c89d7615ec.jpg)

Berlin is considering something pretty radical. A grass roots movement called Volksentscheid Berlin Autofrei, or the People’s Decision for Auto-Free Berlin, is trying to turn the entire core of the city into a car-free zone. (There would be some exceptions and so we should maybe call it primarily car free.)

The area in question is everything inside of the city's circular S-Bahn train line (pictured above), which would make it the largest car-free zone or mostly car-free zone in the world. It's larger than Manhattan and it's about the size of London's zones 1 and 2, to help give you a sense of the scale.

So far the group has collected about 50,000 supportive signatures and, [according to Fast Company](https://www.fastcompany.com/90711961/berlin-is-planning-a-car-free-area-larger-than-manhattan?itm_source=parsely-api&icid=dan902:754:0:editRecirc), the Senate of Berlin is set to make a decision on the proposal next month. I have no idea how much community and/or political momentum this actually has, but I love how bold of an idea this is.

Is it too bold?

Again, it is perhaps useful to flip the question and [use Seth Godin's status-quo-bias-checker model](https://brandondonnelly.com/2022/01/03/an-exciting-new-proposal-for-toronto/) when thinking about this. If the center of Berlin was already car free and a community group had just come forward with a plan to now allow vehicles, how do you think you'd feel? I could see that being contentious.

Do you think Berlin should do it?

_Image: City of Berlin via Fast Company_

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*Originally published on [Brandon Donnelly](https://brandondonnelly.com/berlin-is-considering-going-car-free)*