The POLIS mobility conference was held in Utrecht, the Netherlands, on November 26 to 27. The conference is an annual event within a larger set of member meetings held during the same week, organized by the Brussels-based POLIS group. 

Polis comprises cities and regions, as well as corporate partners, from across Europe, promoting the development and implementation of sustainable mobility. This year’s event had over a thousand attendees across various policy forums and an exhibition.

A Picture of the Host City

The POLIS conference provides an opportunity to observe progress in implementation and current challenges in deploying sustainable mobility across the continent. 

The conference host was the City of Utrecht — a prosperous, multimodal, and sustainable city in the center of the Netherlands. 

The apparent success of this city in developing a sustainable mobility environment set the tone for the rest of the conference. The town offers many lessons for cities worldwide while continuing to grapple with its own challenges.

Utrecht is a city of just under 400,000 people in the eastern Randstad area of the Netherlands, which also includes the country's three other most significant towns and has a population of 8.5 million. 

The wider region comprises historic urban, suburban, and protected rural areas between the developed towns. The wider region also includes the Port of Rotterdam — the largest port in Europe- and Schiphol Airport — one of Europe’s largest air hubs. This area of the Netherlands is a major economic engine of the continent and a successful, prosperous, and dynamic region. 

A common issue across the Netherlands, at present, is how to manage ongoing economic growth, including new jobs and residents. 

This population growth is intense and widespread, and most towns are preparing plans for significant new housing. Yet the Netherlands has a long history of comprehensive, compact, and livable community design, as well as of recognizing nature's limits and needs. One is never far from canals and waterways, and much of the country is either below sea level or at risk of severe flooding without constant water management. 

Suburban sprawl across the countryside is not being considered as an urban development option in the country. In Utrecht’s case, the city is expected to grow to over 450,000 by 2040.

These issues are driving significant thought and development of mobility policy in the country and are excellent examples of best practice for cities across Europe and the wider world.

Mobility in the City

In Utrecht, 44% of the city’s internal trips are by bicycle. The cycle is omnipresent as a means of mobility. People of all types use this mode, and cycle flows on city streets can be remarkably intense. 

However, the city also has a comprehensive classic public transport system of buses and a new tram network. A unique urban feature is that the city’s university campus is on the edge of the built-up area, which generates high passenger flows across the city.

Utrecht is also at the heart of the Dutch railway network. It has the country's busiest and most significant railway station, with over 200,000 passengers embarking and disembarking, and 1,000 daily train arrivals. 

The rail network provides ample, timely, and efficient connections to all major cities in the region and across the country. The railway station was rebuilt in full through to 2016 as an expanded multimodal hub for trains, the city’s tram, local and regional buses, and cycles. It includes an underground cycle parking facility for 12,500 bicycles on one side of the station, with another smaller facility on the other. 

The station is so large and modern that it feels like a contemporary airport terminal. The railway station area is also being steadily redeveloped into a large-scale, high-rise office and residential quarter to address the economic growth mentioned.

There is optimism about urban mobility, and accessibility is excellent in the area.

The Netherlands is well known for its cycling culture, and Utrecht is a prominent example. 

However, it is at the heart of a large, diverse economy, and car and truck traffic is also heavy. Traffic is managed away from the city center, but it has still left the city with a major motorway that divides it from the university area. 

The number of bicycles also creates challenges in managing cycle parking in a dense, historic city, prompting the city to aggressively seek solutions to move cycle parking off central city streets and into underground spaces. 

Similarly, pedestrian flows are intense, and pedestrians still need to feel safe among city traffic and cyclists. Dutch culture has developed a remarkable tolerance for sharing road and sidewalk space, enabling multiple modes to coexist seamlessly in most cases with minimal conflict. This would not be so typical in most other global cities and cultures.

Polis 2025 Highlights

A theme in this year’s conference was “Healthy Urban Living.”

Representatives from a range of cities, including Utrecht and Heidelberg, as well as a health insurance representative and the World Health Organization, discussed these issues. 

A key outcome was that doing nothing and maintaining the status quo in most European cities and across the wider world will lead to worsening environmental and health outcomes for residents, which will become increasingly visible. Thus, there is a need to change the narrative on space within cities to a positive conversation that engages residents and businesses on how they want (limited) space to be used.

The conference’s final plenary featured speakers from the New Mobility Foundation, a former Prime Minister of the Netherlands (J. P. Balkenende), and the European Union. The session also discussed “Transport Poverty” and the need to improve transport to enable a broader range of citizens to participate socially and economically. 

The conference also included parallel sessions that deepened the discussion on mobility. 

One session focused on developing mobility solutions for both emerging and existing suburban areas with less-than-favorable designs for micromobility and other sustainable transport. This is also an issue in the Netherlands, particularly in older suburban areas, and a strong recommendation is to install connections and shortcuts that favor mobility for pedestrians and cyclists and encourage people to explore and enjoy their local communities.

The City of Rome was well represented in the sessions and, in contrast to the situation in the Netherlands, discussed how promoting cycling and the use of traditional public transport has become a key strategic priority, even though cycling levels are currently very low. 

Measures include new micromobility infrastructure, low-cost combined tickets for public transport and shared transport, proactive discussions within the city on the needs of sustainable transport, and an extensive long-term program to expand rail-based public transport. 

Rome and the Rome Mobility Agency were conference winners of the Polis Award for success in advancing the sustainable mobility agenda.

A further session — provocatively entitled “Fighting Fake Freedom: Overcoming Forced Car Ownership” — examined shared car ownership in global cities, sustainable development in the Netherlands, the role of cars, the impacts of social exclusion where cars are deemed the only viable means of mobility, and why these issues are not discussed more widely within and outside of the mobility community.

The POLIS conference will return in early December 2026 and will be held in Brussels, Belgium.