From BZ/dpa
The administrative court considers the previous blocking of Friedrichstrasse for cars to be illegal. Will the mobility administration take action against this? There isn’t much time left.
Time is of the essence when deciding on an appeal against the administrative court’s decision on the controversial blocking of Friedrichstrasse for cars. On Tuesday it must be clear how the competent Senate Department for the Environment and Mobility intends to proceed. The decision could be made on Monday, mobility senator Bettina Jarasch (Greens) promised a decision for the beginning of the week in the “Berliner Morgenpost” (Sunday).
The administrative court had declared that it was illegal to block the relevant section of Friedrichstrasse in central Berlin for cars. However, the decision is not yet final, until Tuesday an appeal to the Higher Administrative Court (OVG) is possible.
If the mobility administration decides against a complaint, Friedrichstrasse must be released for cars again. That is quite conceivable. After all, nobody knows whether the OVG will not confirm the decision – the Senate Chancellery sees this possibility as well as the responsible Senate administration.
Berlin’s Governing Mayor Franziska Giffey (SPD) had therefore called for a “dedicated examination” at the most recent Senate meeting and also commissioned Jarasch to coordinate the issue with the Senate Department for Economics and for Urban Development.
Quite apart from that, Jarasch wants to stick to the plans for a pedestrian zone in Friedrichstrasse, as she affirmed again in an interview with the “Berliner Morgenpost”. The traffic test with a car-free Friedrichstraße on a 500-meter-long section in Berlin-Mitte, which has now ended, has shown that things still need to be improved, said Jarasch. So the bike lane in the middle of the street had to be removed. “But the experiment also showed that it basically works.”
There was less traffic overall in the entire area around Gendarmenmarkt and significantly more pedestrians in the car-free section who stayed there longer. “That’s the goal of a promenade,” argued the green senator.