(© The Berlin Spectator, photo Imanuel Marcus)
by Ron Bernthal
In Berlin, an organization called Volksentschid Berlin Autofrei (People’s Decision for Auto-Free Berlin), is proposing a plan that will severely limit autmobiles within the city’s Ringbahn, a long circular roadway that winds around the city center. If approved by city officials, the new “car free” plan would turn the inner city into the world’s largest car-free area.
Map of the proposed S-Bahn-Ring, which encircles central Berlin. Streets within the Ring Road would be used only for walking, biking, public transport and emergency vehicles. ( map © S-Bahn Berlin GmbH )
The citizen-initiative is aimed mostly at banning the use of private cars in central Berlin, with the exception of emergency vehicles, garbage trucks, taxis, delivery vehicles, and residents with limited mobility, who would all be given special access permits.
According to Berlin Autofrei, a sustainable city needs “much more space for pedestrians, cyclists and a strong public transport system. A car-reduced Berlin city centre ensures: a better quality of life, more spaces for everyone, more safety on Berlin’s streets, and climate protection. Electric cars cannot solve the traffic problems of our cities. After all, an electric car is still a car with all its problems.”
(© Green Bike Tours, photo Helene Hjortlund)
The reasoning goes on to declare that “public space in the center of Berlin is a valuable and scarce resource. Everyone should be able to use it. Also the street is there for everyone and not just for the few who drive or park on it. Cars – parked or driven – take up a disproportionate amount of space. This space is urgently needed: for trains, buses and trams, for wider footpaths and cycle paths, for playing, for neighbourly interaction and public life. A just allocation of space means redistributing public space in favour of those who want to move around in a healthy and climate-friendly way.”
The legal framework of the proposal includes that all streets within the S-Bahn-Ring will become car-reduced streets after the appropriate transition period. This means that the use of the streets will be limited to walking, cycling and public transport.
Berlin cafe (photo Ron Bernthal)
User groups who continue to depend on motor vehicles will receive a respective special use permit, for example: persons with reduced mobility who are therefore dependent on a car public and emergency services (e.g. police, ambulance service, fire department, garbage collection, taxis) commercial and delivery traffic.
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