The topic of mobility is the subject of intense debate in Germany and Europe. Rulings on driving bans and the threat of traffic collapse in major cities make the topic a constant topic in the daily and specialist press. The city of Essen, like many other municipalities, is under particular pressure to suffer and act. To achieve the mobility turnaround, the city of Essen has the ambitious goal of achieving a modal split of 4 x 25 percent by 2035. The next step in the process towards this goal is to draw up an overall concept for mobility in Essen. In the first phase, the MobilityWorkCity Essen 25 funding project forms the prelude with the implementation of a broad stakeholder participation process.

Within the framework of the funding project, a participation procedure in the sense of a sustainable mobility turnaround is being developed in scientific cooperation with the Institute for Mobility and Urban Planning at the University of Duisburg-Essen. The success of the mobility turnaround is a joint task and thus different groups of actors, especially from citizenship, organised civil society and administration, are involved. In addition to the explicit participation of stakeholder groups, participation is also carried out according to thematic priorities. 

The methodology of participation is adapted to the respective actors and topics and, under the current situation, ranges from online workshops to digital surveys to physical participation in the form of a citizens' forum. Together with the stakeholders, guiding principles, goals and measures on various topics are developed and implemented both in the short term and in perspective in a second phase of the funding project. The role of the project partner is, in particular, to advise and support the design and evaluation of the participation process in order to place the main features of the overall mobility concept in a scientific context.

The aim of the funding project is to discuss the "Action Concept Modal Split 2035", which was prepared internally by the administration, in a stakeholder participation concept and to develop it further in the sense of an overall concept for mobility. The various participation formats with a wide range of stakeholders are intended to produce common objectives and possible courses of action for sustainable urban mobility in Essen. The results achieved and concepts developed are then to be transferred into practical implementation projects.