By Gunnar Schupelius
In Friedenau, parking spaces are disappearing in favor of bicycles. The green city councilor does not allow any citizen participation. Cars should be pushed out, that’s the big goal behind everything, says Gunnar Schupelius.
Across the city, curb parking is disappearing, mostly in favor of bike lanes.
In Handjerystraße (Friedenau), a third of all parking spaces are used by bicycles. Handjerystraße will be turned into a bicycle street. This is a heavy blow for the residents in this densely built-up residential area.
As justification, the responsible city councilor Saskia Ellenbeck (Greens) refers to the “guideline” of the Senate on the “implementation of bicycle streets in Berlin”. After that, she writes to us, “the lane for bicycle traffic should have a width of at least four meters plus a safety distance of at least 0.75 m to stationary traffic at the edge of the lane”.
In order to achieve the overall width of 5.50 meters, parked cars would have to give way. That’s not true, because the guideline also states that “a minimum lane width of 5.50 meters is not absolutely necessary” if “a cycle lane is implemented without structural changes to the cross-section of the lane” (page 14). And that is exactly the case in Handjerystrasse.
A width of four meters remains, but even that is not stipulated by the road traffic regulations. These four meters should enable cyclists to ride side by side in both directions.
Is it fair to take away the residents’ parking spaces for this cycling convenience? No, says the member of the Bundestag Jan-Marco Luczak (CDU), who is looking for a balance: “The redesign of Handjerystraße can also be organized without the loss of parking spaces.”
Luczak arranged for a resident survey. Of 700 participants, 70 percent spoke out against a bicycle street.
City Councilor Ellenbeck does not allow citizen participation. “A large number of experts,” she says, is involved in planning the cycle lanes, “for example from the area of bicycle initiatives, the bicycle council, environmental organizations”.
They don’t care about the will of the residents, the activists have the floor. Ms. Ellenbeck herself comes from their ranks, and in 2021 she moved directly to the district office as a lobbyist from the General German Bicycle Club (ADFC).
When I asked if she was aware that many residents depended on their cars to go to work, she replied: “Especially in the city center (…) the connection to public transport is very good. If a private car is needed, residents (…) can park both on Handjerystrasse and in the surrounding area.”
Again, that’s not true: that’s hardly possible now, and certainly not when a third of the existing parking spaces are no longer available.
The parking spaces could be retained if the cyclists ride in a row. But the councilor doesn’t want that. For them there are no compromises. citizen participation? Always happy, but not when it comes to cars. They should be pushed out, that’s the big goal behind everything.
Is Gunnar Schupelius right? Call: 030/2591 73153 or email: [email protected]