Tempo 30 in front of schools and kindergartens, zebra crossings, bike lanes, bus lanes: there is movement in local transport policy. In the future, they should have much more leeway when it comes to where cars can drive and how fast. In the future, they will also have more flexibility when parking for residents, as well as in the question of whether they want to set up other “special lanes” in addition to bus lanes, for example for e-cars. This emerges from a draft law to amend the Road Traffic Act, which the Federal Ministry of Transport will present to the ministerial colleagues in the cabinet next Wednesday.
The Greens and FDP have also long struggled over this new regulation. The fact that it can now be launched has to do with the compromise in the Building Energy Act. Since the agreement on Wednesday, the deadlock on the climate protection law and the innovations in transport policy have also been resolved. “Now the knot has finally been cut through,” said the Federal Ministry of Transport.
Specifically, it is about the fact that restrictions could only be made to avert dangers to safety or the ease of traffic. In practice, this means that municipalities can set up 30 km/h zones, especially if several accidents of the same kind, sometimes with a fatal outcome, have already happened at the location. There has long been agreement in the traffic light coalition to change this. Above all, the question of how this could happen was wrestled with. In the future, in addition to safety and ease of transport, the goals of environmental and climate protection, urban development and health are to be included in the corresponding regulations with equal priority, according to the draft bill available to the FAZ.
It is interesting what is not regulated
Even though transport policy has been the subject of some emotional debates at the federal level for months: central points are being set in more than 10,000 cities and communities. The change is therefore of crucial importance for the municipalities. About two years ago, cities such as Hanover, Leipzig and Münster founded the “Initiative livable cities and communities” to push through such a reform.
However, the Road Traffic Act and – with the participation of the federal states – the road traffic regulations must have changed for this to happen. This is a laborious process, especially since the Deutschlandticket attracted a lot of attention last year.
The municipal initiative praised the existing draft as fulfilling one of its key requirements. “The draft presented offers reason for optimism,” said Leipzig Mayor Thomas Dienberg. “Our approximately 800 local member municipalities have fought stubbornly for this in the councils and committees and together in the initiative.”
However, it is also interesting what is not regulated in the draft: A comprehensive 30 km/h zone will not be introduced. Greens and environmental organizations have long advocated the idea of generally lowering the standard speed from 50 to 30 kilometers per hour. However, there are great fears that such a project would meet with similar protests from the citizens as the original version of the controversial heating law with its strict specifications for the installation of a heat pump.
The demand is therefore not found in the coalition agreement. And even among green state transport ministers, this option does not seem to have any supporters. The transport minister from North Rhine-Westphalia, Oliver Krischer (Greens), made it clear at the last transport ministers’ conference that this was not up for debate. The municipal initiative also emphasized something similar during a meeting with Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) at the beginning of June.
However, after the cabinet decision planned for Wednesday, it will still be a while before the local authorities can make use of their new rights, not only because of the forthcoming parliamentary procedure. The federal states should also still have a need to talk about the necessary change to the road traffic regulations. The Federal Ministry of Transport said they wanted to contact the federal states quickly.
#Traffic #light #agrees #regulations #kmh #zones