Recent figures show that despite Berlin’s population steadily rising, the number of cars in the city is declining. Last year, there were 1.075 million privately registered cars in Berlin, compared to 1.1 million in 2021. This translates to an average of 275 private cars per 1,000 people, down from 291 in 2021 and almost 300 between 2010 and 2013. Car ownership rates vary greatly between districts; while over a third of Berliners living in outer districts like Steglitz-Zehlendorf and Reinickendorf have a car, in Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg
there are only 168 vehicles registered per 1,000 inhabitants. Across Germany, there are 590 vehicles per 1,000 inhabitants, including commercial and government vehicles (counting these, in Berlin there are 334 per 1,000 – still far below the national average). Interestingly, one specific type of vehicle has defied the trend and immensely risen in popularity over the past decade and a half: there were over 19,000 motorhomes registered in Berlin in 2024, compared to just above 8,000 in 2010. Green Party politician Antje Kapek is satisfied
with Berliners’ changing mobility habits. “The era of the car is over,” she told Tagesspiegel, calling for the prioritisation of public transport and bicycle paths in public policy matters. Nonetheless, Berliners are still not anti-car enough to drive them away (almost) completely; the Berlin autofrei initiative only managed to get 140,000 signatures, falling short of the 175,000 necessary for a referendum. Still, the gap was not wide enough as to not leave hope for a different outcome in the future. As outdated German bureaucracy requires
all signatures to be submitted physically on paper, perhaps collecting them in warmer months would yield higher numbers – that was certainly the case in the last week of the autofrei campaign, when 33,000 signatures were collected as warm weather drew Berliners outside at the beginning of May. Furthermore, perhaps even fewer Berliners would have cars if street parking was priced at market rates instead of car-dependency being publicly subsidised; a parking spot is by far the cheapest piece of real estate you can get
in the inner city, with permits standing at €20.40 for two years (that comes up to less than 10 cents per square metre per month, which is around 200 times less than what living space costs).
Berlin, car ownership, privately registered cars, motorhomes, autofrei initiative, Antje Kapek, public transport, bicycle paths, street parking, referendum signatures