With street blockades and the renouncement of the car people in Stuttgart and Berlin demonstrated for less traffic. The action day in Berlin provided for a passenger push in buses and trains - passengers were allowed to use a single day ticket on Sunday.
According to the news agency dpa, Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG) reported noticeably more passengers. In many places, the bus drivers were also better, because less had been on the streets.
In Stuttgart, the first car-free Sunday was celebrated on the central Theodor-Heuss-Straße in the Baden-Württemberg state capital with thousands of visitors.
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Christoph Schmidt / DPA
Park instead of parking: car opponents celebrate free streets
In other European countries, people left the car on Sunday. According to the Belgian agency Belga, around 800 people gathered at breakfast on a long table in Rue de la Loi in the capital city of Brussels - right in the middle of a main street in the EU quarter.
Visitor low on Germany's largest auto show
The declining interest in the car is likely to be responsible for falling visitor numbers at the Frankfurt Motor Show IAA. According to the Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA) came this year a good 560,000 visitors. At the last edition of the automobile exhibition two years ago, there were still 810,000 visitors, the IAA Cars 2015 had lured even 932,000 people in the Frankfurt exhibition halls.
Whether the IAA will be hosted again in Frankfurt in two years is uncertain. A new trade fair concept with changing venues will be discussed. VDA President Mattes is aiming for a location decision by the end of this year.
This year, the IAA was marked not only by manufacturers' new ideas, but also by protests from climate activists. At the same time, the number of exhibitors dropped from just under a thousand in 2017 to just over 800 this year.