The German capital is driving drivers out of the city bit by bit – among other things with a drastic reduction in parking spaces. Resident parking is also to be made much more expensive, based on size and weight.
The red-green-red city government of Berlin has little left for motorists: According to the city’s plans, the current environmental zone should no longer be allowed to be entered by petrol and diesel cars by 2030. Parking spaces are being dismantled in piecework and wider cycle paths are being painted on the street instead. After a legal wrangling about the car-free Friedrichsstrasse project, the Greens want to make the street permanently car-free by “rezoning”, even against the will of many business people.
As the Berlin newspaper B.Z. reports, the next shock for motorists will soon follow: they will have to pay significantly more money for their local residents’ parking spaces. “In Berlin traffic, size will be important in the future. The environmental administration of Bettina Jarasch (54, Greens) wants to stagger the price for resident vignettes in the coming year according to size and other climate-related criteria,” says the B.Z. A twelve-fold increase in the price from the current EUR 10.20 to EUR 120 per year is under discussion. The model is the city of Tübingen, where there are already similar gradations.
Details are still unknown, also with regard to the so-called “climate-relevant criteria”. Because if the costs were actually scaled according to size and weight, electric cars would be particularly affected, which bring a lot of additional weight because of the batteries. Some examples:
However, Berlin wants to promote e-mobility and at the same time ban diesel and petrol engines from the streets. It is therefore to be expected that there will be special treatment for the electric cars, which are subsidized with a lot of tax money, in which size and weight will suddenly no longer play a role.
However, the new resident tariffs are not enough. The “cars out” policy of the Berliners brings up even more powerful artillery. “It is being examined whether 150 car parking spaces per 1000 inhabitants should be sufficient in the future. A bonus for Berliners who give up their car permanently, such as a free public transport ticket, is also being examined,” according to the B.Z. continue.
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