Criticism of council order Retail traders holding on to Cityring in Bonn

Bonn · The traffic debate concerning the former Cityring continues. Bonn retail traders are critical, particularly against the background of the corona crisis. The new carpark on Rabinstraße is almost complete.

 The new multi-storey carpark next to Bonn central train station is almost complete.

The new multi-storey carpark next to Bonn central train station is almost complete.

Foto: Benjamin Westhoff

Plagued by the corona crisis and the acute slump in sales, Bonn's retail traders are once again voicing massive criticism of the traffic routing on the former Cityring, as it has been since Wednesday. Private traffic is denied passage along the bus and main train station from the direction of Rathausgasse/Am Hof and Kaiserstrasse. The route to the motorway and the industrial estates in the north of Bonn therefore also leads either via Adenauerallee and Belderberg, over the Viktoria bridge or via the Reuterstraße/Stadtautobahn route. Past the railway station, the only way to get there from the south is through the southern underpass from Poppelsdorfer Allee.

Road traffic in the city centre has thinned out considerably in the last three weeks due to the corona crisis. Despite this, the Bonn retail association believes that the new traffic regulations are the wrong decision. Jannis Vassiliou, chairman of the Bonn retail association is certain that the single-lane traffic through the Koblenzer Tor, the roundabout at the old cemetery and the single-lane Thomastraße in the direction of the motorway would "manifest the new collapse". He has summarised his position in an open letter to the mayor Ashok Sridharan (CDU).

As reported, the Christian Democrats had pursued the plan to have the Cityring pass the train station again via Rathausgasse, Am Hof, Wesselstraße and Maximilianstraße from April onwards. However, they did not find sufficient support, especially not from their Green coalition partner, who loudly celebrated the capping of the Cityring following the voting with the applicant SPD.

Apparently, the retailers now hope that the transport issue could be reassessed in the upcoming election campaign - and possibly without the need for discipline in an existing coalition. Vassiliou says, “after Corona, the economy and trade will emerge from the crisis in a very weakened state." It will then be important for the inner city to be easily accessible, which in the view of the retail association can only mean the restoration of the previous Cityring road.

For the time being, the new station carpark on Rabinstraße will only be accessible from the direction of the Südstadt via the archway over Koblenzer Tor, Oxfordstraße and the roundabout at the old cemetery - as soon as the car park opens. The apparent last steps noted here indicate that this could soon be the case. Meanwhile, people using Kaiserstraße have questions for the city council - since the provisional markings for the test phase were removed around a week ago, the entire length of the street is now without any road markings. The council has not yet confirmed if and when this will change.

(Original text: Rüdiger Franz, Translation: Caroline Kusch)

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