Bürgerinitiative Neckartor (Citizen’s Initiative Neckartor, BI Neckartor) was initiated by residents near Germany’s most polluted intersection, Neckartor, in the heart of Stuttgart. Their goal is to raise awareness about traffic-induced air pollution, which regularly exceeds nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) and particulate matter (PM₁₀) thresholds, posing a threat to public health and the environment.

Stuttgart’s special topography, in a basin valley surrounded by steep slopes, is conducive to a build-up of air pollution. And it is notorious for its traffic jams - with the Neckartor intersection among the top four bottlenecks in Germany. This makes organising and managing urban mobility a major challenge for decision makers. Stuttgart is also home to one of the most heated and publicly debated large infrastructure projects in Germany, “Stuttgart 21”, which aims to extend and renovate the central train station. The station will be rebuilt entirely underground by 2021 at an estimated cost of 6.5 billion euros, though critics expect it to cost much more. The controversy polarised the public, leading to a referendum in 2011 in which 58 percent of voters agreed to continue with construction that began in 2010.

• Further reading: CLEW Dossier The Energiewende and German carmakers, CLEW factsheet "Dieselgate" - a timeline of Germany's car emissions fraud scandal, CLEW factsheet Diesel driving bans in Germany – The Q&A
• CLEW research tour: Climate, clean air and digital age: Shifting gears in car country?
• Date of publication: March 2017