Oslo's Car-Free Livability Programme — About 760 Parking Spaces Removed, Car Traffic Down 28% in the Centre

Oslo's Car-Free Livability Programme (Bilfritt byliv) was launched by the city council elected in 2015 with the aim of making the central area of about 1.3 km² largely free of private cars, and ran in three phases between 2016 and 2019. Around 760–800 on-street parking spaces were converted to pedestrian space, benches, cultural space, playgrounds and bicycle infrastructure.
According to the European Commission's Urban Mobility Observatory case study, car traffic in the city centre fell by 11% between 2016 and 2018 and by a further 19% between 2018 and 2019, while pedestrian counts on surveyed streets rose by about 14% and the number of people staying in public spaces rose by about 43%. Public transport and cycling shares increased slightly, and more than half of residents expressed support for fewer cars in the centre in 2017 and 2018 surveys.
Shop owners and their organisations were the main opponents. A published evaluation found that downtown retail turnover declined, but attributed the decline to broader retail trends rather than the car-free measures, with sales matching or exceeding competing areas. A 'City Account' baseline study on retail effects was still incomplete when reported by a 2019 interview source, so the commercial evidence should be read with caution.
The case is a useful, honestly mixed example: strong monitored shifts in traffic and street life, rising public support, and managed business conflict, but based on municipal monitoring and observational studies rather than a controlled evaluation, in a city with unusually strong public transport.

Read the full analysis: https://urban-mobility-observatory.transport.ec.europa.eu/resources/case-studies/oslo-promoting-active-transport-modes_en