By Gunnar Schupelius
The city highway should connect West and East. It falls victim to an ideological campaign that no one opposes with power, says Gunnar Schupelius.
Transport Senator Bettina Jarasch (Greens) has declared war on the federal government. It’s about the 100 city highway.
Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) wants to extend the route via Friedrichshain and Lichtenberg. In order to thwart this plan, Jarasch would like to reserve the necessary areas for housing and schools.
The city autobahn is currently being expanded from Neukölln to Treptow. This 16th construction phase should be finished in 2024. Then the lanes end at the street at Treptower Park.
With the 17th construction phase, the motorway is to lead over the Elsenbrücke, then under the Ostkreuz and over the Frankfurter Allee to the Storkower Straße.
The purpose of this plan is to concentrate traffic and keep it out of the residential areas. It is precisely this function that the city motorway in the western part of Berlin has been fulfilling for 60 years. The eastern part should also benefit from the fast connections.
But the Greens have no ear for such arguments. They fought back in 1997 against the A 113 to Schönefeld. They later boycotted the 16th construction phase of the A 100. That is why the then Governing Mayor Wowereit (SPD) broke up the planned red-green coalition in 2011.
The Greens’ opposition to the autobahn is uncompromising. They want to abolish motorized private transport. In this fight, the autobahn becomes a symbol for a transport system that should no longer exist.
Traffic Senator Jarasch (Greens) wants to prevent further construction through Friedrichshain and Lichtenberg Photo: Sven Darmer
They don’t care if the majority of the population follows this path. The majority apparently does not follow, they want the Autobahn, as can be seen by looking at the city every day, where the vote is taking place with the wheels.
This majority does not need the Autobahn for leisure fun, but for professional and private obligations. Anyone who relies on a car or truck cannot afford to be stuck in traffic, they need a well-developed road network and roads that are free of intersections.
After all, a city freeway is nothing more than a road without intersections, on which you drive a little faster, 60 or 80 kilometers per hour instead of 50. In this way, fewer exhaust gases are produced, less energy is used, walls, tunnels and troughs reduce traffic noise.
Incidentally, the majority in the German Bundestag, which finances the autobahns, is in favor of the continued construction of the A 100, as is the majority in the Berlin House of Representatives.
The Berlin SPD, however, with the governing mayor Giffey, who is actually behind the construction of the Autobahn, is unable to assert itself against the Greens and their radical propaganda, which also receives support from the left.
And so the most important road construction project in Berlin, which was supposed to connect East and West, is brought down.
Is Gunnar Schupelius right? Call: 030/2591 73153 or email: [email protected]