"I don't miss anything" - Premiums reward car-free living

Julia Koenen has given up her car. The 37-year-old now only uses trams, subways, or regional trains to get to work or be mobile in her free time. The deciding factor was an initiative by the city of Frankfurt am Main, where she lives. Since July of last year, people here have been receiving a one-year subscription for the Deutschlandticket if they can prove that they have just sold their combustion engine car. 

“I don’t miss anything,” says Julia Koenen regarding her car-free life. “I rarely need a car, and when I do, I mostly use one from carsharing.” The train is also not always as unpunctual as it is often said to be. Her car had mostly been sitting in the garage even before the sale. 

City Aims to Assess Impact After One Year

Around 340 people have followed Koenen's example by the end of January, according to the city of Frankfurt.

"We are very satisfied with this," says a spokeswoman for the mobility department.

No cases of misuse are known so far. The impact of the incentive will be evaluated after one year. Half a million euros of budget is available. The city emphasizes that this is a smaller measure within a larger overall plan to promote climate-friendly transportation.

Other cities have also announced similar incentives. Since September 2022, Darmstadt paid for a three-month "climate ticket" for bus and train when giving up one's own car. The program ended in January 2024 for budgetary reasons, and participant numbers had been steadily declining. The southern Hessian city counted around 200 deregistered cars during this period.

The city of Marburg had to temporarily suspend the second round of its incentive program due to a budget freeze at the end of last year, despite high demand. Up until then, a total of 89 citizens received 1,250 euros in the form of vouchers for one year of giving up a private car.

500 euros when purchasing a bicycle

In Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, deregistering one's own car was temporarily rewarded with an annual subscription to public transport or a 500-euro subsidy when purchasing a bicycle. The continuation of the "Environmentally Friendly Mobility" funding program currently depends on budget consultations, as a spokesperson reports. 

Case numbers like in Frankfurt are a drop in the ocean given the large total number of cars, says Michael Müller-Görnert, the transport policy spokesperson for the Ecological Transport Club of Germany (VCD). There are more urgent tasks like good public transport, effective parking management, and safe cycling paths.

“It has to go hand in hand,” says Müller-Görnert.

Many cities are on the right track, while others are doing nothing in this direction and elsewhere there are setbacks. 

Cities demand adequate funding

Cities want more greenery, good air, and less noise, and the traffic transition contributes significantly to this, says the president of the German Association of Cities, the mayor of Münster, Markus Lewe (CDU). To encourage people to switch, attractive and affordable alternatives are crucial: modern buses and trains, closer intervals and integration in local transport, better connections to surrounding areas, and digital traffic management. The federal and state governments need to provide good financial resources for this. 

The primary goal of incentives like bonuses for giving up one's own car is to stimulate a broad discussion in urban society, says mobility researcher Levke Sönksen from the German Institute of Urban Affairs. This also includes organizing competitions or contests such as "City Cycling."