By Gunnar Schupelius
Budapester Strasse is being rebuilt for safety reasons, but it will be permanently turned into a traffic jam, that’s actually planned. This is what transport policy looks like in Berlin, says Gunnar Schupelius.
Budapester Strasse at Breitscheidplatz looks like a particularly untidy permanent construction site. On the median there are “locking elements”, steel mesh baskets filled with sand.
The southern lane is closed. The traffic is tormenting on the northern lane in both directions, one lane, one is mostly stuck in traffic jams. Ambulances can no longer get through in the easterly direction.
The barriers were set up after the 2016 terrorist attack. For years they stood in the square at the side of the road. They were moved for summer festivals or the Christmas market, but then put back to make room for traffic.
This is ending now. Now the ugly dirty steel mesh baskets are left standing at the request of the district office, as the responsible city councilor Oliver Schruoffeneger (Greens) let us know. Because the blocking elements are in poor condition, they would “not survive another move”.
So you stay where you are until Budapester Strasse is reconstructed. The city council promises that this will happen “promptly”. The “planning draft” should be “finally available in spring 23”.
Budapester Strasse at Breitscheidplatz has been narrowed in half, now only provisionally, but that’s how it should stay. The complete reconstruction of the lanes is planned, Kantstrasse will become a dead end Photo: Christian Lohse
According to the planning status, the southern lane of Budapester Strasse is to be narrowed in half and routed in such a way that it is no longer possible to drive onto Breitscheidplatz from either side. The Kantstraße is closed, so it becomes a dead end.
Such plans have been haunting the authorities for a long time, but have never been decided. Almost two years ago, on February 15, 2021, there was already a final “planning meeting” with the district office and senate administrations. Then the Senate was supposed to decide on the conversion of Breitscheidplatz, but this has not happened to this day.
And even before February 15, 2021, there were already many rounds in which nothing was decided. There have been discussions about securing the place since the beginning of 2017, i.e. for exactly six years, but always without a result.
A sign indicates the changed traffic routing Photo: Christian Lohse
The “barrier elements” were set up in autumn 2018, they were intended as a “pilot project”, as it was called at the time. The Senate and the district got into a heated argument over a final solution, and a total of five authorities were irreconcilably at loggerheads for years.
So when the city council now announces that a decision will be made “promptly”, you can only laugh out loud. However, if a result were to be reached, it would be at the expense of road traffic. Then space will be made for the folk festivals on the square. The fact that traffic also needs space is irrelevant.
Budapester Strasse is being rebuilt for safety reasons, but it will be permanently turned into a traffic jam, that’s actually planned. This is what traffic policy looks like in Berlin.
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