Bicycle racks instead of parking spaces City of Bonn wants to introduce parking fees in Nordstadt
Bonn · Bonn's city administration wants to make the inner Nordstadt as car-free as possible. Among other things, parking spaces are to be eliminated. In addition, parking fees and parking for residents are planned.
Get on your bike: If the city administration and presumably large parts of local politics have their way, the old slogan of the ADFC will become more and more a reality in Bonn's old town. "The inner northern part of the city should become as car-free as possible" is the title of a statement by the administration on a citizens' motion with the same intention. The proposal will be discussed in the Bonn district council at the beginning of February.
Citizens can make suggestions
In concrete terms, the administration would like to remove all parking spaces which are next to pavements of less than 150 meters wide. The paper does not say how many parking spaces would be affected. However, it is not the only instrument in the city's toolbox: the administration points out that it is "currently working within the framework of various concepts on an expansion of alternative mobility offers as well as a reduction of motorised individual traffic". As additional examples, it mentions the expansion of the charging infrastructure for electric cars and a "comprehensive car-sharing concept". Meanwhile, the city administration is accepting concrete suggestions for the conversion of parking spaces into bicycle parking facilities from citizens on its website.
In this mixed situation, the city assumes that traffic in Bonn will be significantly reduced in the medium term. "In addition, a reduction in so-called third-party parking and parking search traffic can be assumed as a result of parking space management," it writes in its statement, which reads like a introduction to an appointment this Wednesday. At noon, Mayor Katja Dörner (Greens) and representatives of the administrative board want to explain the current status of parking management to the media.
Residents' parking in the Chlodwigplatz neighbourhood
Parking fees are the subject of another item of discussion in the Bonn District Council at the beginning of February. This is not about the inner, but the outer Nordstadt. The authors of a citizens' petition demand the "short-term" introduction of parking for residents in the area between Lievelingsweg, Kölnstraße, Kaiser-Karl-Ring and Graurheindorfer Straße - in other words, in the wider vicinity of the LVR Clinic. According to the petitioners, visitors to the Robert-Wetzlar-Berufskolleg, whose vehicles make it difficult for residents to find a parking space, are a thorn in their side. "Every free space is parked over," the petition says, among other things.
However, residents' parking will not work quite as comprehensively as its authors would like. Complete exclusion of other users is not permissible in principle, writes the city in its statement. It is true that for the area around the Robert-Wetzlar-Berufskolleg between Lievelingsweg and Kaiser-Karl-Ring, a regulation on parking space management and also on residents' parking is permissible and is already in preparation for 2022. The area to the east of this - up to Graurheindorfer Straße - has not yet been taken into account, but is also to be provided with parking spaces subject to charges. However, this is to be done in the larger context of the "city-wide parking concept". After this Wednesday's press conference, it will soon go to the political committees.
Original text: Rüdiger Franz
Translation: Mareike Graepel
