Dangerous spots for cyclists City administration wants to adjust traffic routing at the Kennedy Bridge
Bonn · Bonn's police chief Frank Hoever proposes to rethink the traffic routing around Kennedy Bridge. The municipality is preparing to award the contract to a planning office for the redesign of the east-west axis.
It’s difficult to find people who use Kennedy Bridge who haven't had their share of trouble with the traffic. One of them is Rosa Stommel, who crosses the bridge in both directions on her cargo bike almost every day. "There are really a lot of tricky spots. I keep getting into clashes with other cyclists, pedestrians and cars," says the 39-year-old mother of two. Or there's Felix Kleinert. The 50-year-old travels on foot as well as by bike and car. "When I come from the bridge by car and have to turn right into Hermannstraße, I have to watch out like a lynx at the zebra crossing. Cyclists have the right of way, they are often fast, and it's hard for me to know what's going on," says Kleinert.
Police chief wants to tackle accident blackspots
The corner at Hermannstraße and the junction at Boeselagerhof on the left bank of the Rhine are also problematic for Bonn's public utility company (SWB) bus drivers. According to SWB spokesperson Clarissa Pütz, both are difficult for drivers to negotiate. However, the company is not aware of any accidents involving buses so far.
The tricky spots - especially at the intersections on both sides of the Rhine - are well known. Bonn's police chief Frank Hoever recently described them as accident blackspots in an interview with the General-Anzeiger. "I think we could go back to the drawing board and rethink the whole traffic routing for cyclists," he said. At the same time, he announced that this year one of the focal points of the Bonn police would be to increase the safety of cyclists and thus stop accidents.
A noticeable increase in the number of collisions (the traffic statistics for 2022 will be published by the police in March) is attributed by Hoever to the fact "that the city of Bonn is doing a lot for cyclists and therefore more people are using their bikes, which I expressly welcome". Compared to the previous year, 2021 saw a significant increase in the number of pedelec riders involved in accidents (plus 45.2 percent) and the number of e-scooter riders involved in accidents (plus 121 percent).
The town agrees with the police chief that the traffic routing around Kennedy Bridge, especially at the corner of Hermannstraße, "no longer meets today's requirements", as Vice Town Spokesperson Marc Hoffmann stated in response to a question. At the same time, he emphasises that the city has implemented changes in recent years following reports from the public and advice from the accident commission, which includes the police, the city and the local bicycle club ADFC. These include road markings and flashing lights at the corner of Hermannstraße. "Nevertheless, there remain the fundamental difficulties of a so-called 'free right-turn' (i.e. a right-turn lane without traffic light signalling) across cycle and pedestrian traffic, as well as narrow driving and parking spaces," says Hoffmann. As far as the administration is concerned, these problems can only be solved by reconstructing the entire intersection.
Plans for the reconstruction of the east-west axis
Such a costly intervention is certainly being considered. As reported, the city wants to redesign both Bertha-von-Suttner-Platz and the streets beyond to Beuel in the extension of Oxfordstraße, which last year got cycle and environmental lanes for buses and cyclists in both directions. Hoffmann says: "The city will address this issue in the course of the expansion of the so-called east-west axis. The council is now preparing to award the contract to a planning office so that they can draw up plans for redesigning both this junction and the rest of the road via Konrad-Adenauer-Platz to Sankt-Augustiner-Strasse." These large-scale projects will not be implemented overnight.
ADFC: Exchange with police and city
Gerd Billen, ADFC traffic policy spokesperson, sees the tricky intersections as a danger not only for his own group - cyclists. Car drivers coming from Bonn and turning towards Hermannstraße "almost have their necks broken because the turn situation is unacceptable for them", Billen informs. "We are currently working on ideas and proposals on how the situation can be improved for all road users. And we will soon be exchanging ideas on this with both the Bonn police and the city administration."
The ADFC, like the administration, feels that the spaces for crossing the road at the corner of Hermannstraße, but also opposite on Professor-Neu-Allee, are too cramped for the many pedestrians and cyclists who travel there every day. "In addition, many people are obviously unclear about which rules apply to whom," says Billen. On the Bonn side of the Kennedybrücke, there is no sensible turning option for cyclists coming from Beuel in the direction of Belderberg. "The behaviour of both some car drivers and some cyclists is also critical. For example, there are cyclists who do not observe the restrictions on the cycle lanes in the section between Kennedybrücke and Konrad-Adenauer-Platz."
Another problematic area from the authority's point of view is the Berliner Freiheit/Doetschstraße junction. In the aforementioned time frame, 13 accidents have been reported, eleven of which involved cyclists, each of whom sustained minor injuries. "All of these cases involved collisions between car drivers and cyclists," says Beyer. At the suggestion of the accident commission, the city has greatly curtailed the free right turn lane. Apart from these accident blackspots, there have been 21 other reportable accidents in the Kennedy Bridge area, nine of which involved cyclists. Three of them were seriously injured.
Original text: Philipp Königs
Translation: Jean Lennox
