The city of Bonn is planning to extend areas for residents-only parking and introduce some parking fees in neighbourhoods adjacent to the town centre, for instance in Nordstadt, Weststadt and Südstadt, as well as Endenich, Kessenich and Dottendorf. So free parking in town is going to become a rarity. The aim is to keep cars out of the city as far as possible, to make it easier for residents to find a parking space near their homes, and to make other means of transport such as bus, train or bicycle more attractive. The coalition wants to use the additional revenue from parking fees, for example to introduce 19-euro monthly public transport passes for schoolchildren and “Bonn Ausweis” holders. At the same time, the higher fees will make the parking garages in the city centre more attractive. Here, motorists pay 1.50 euros for the first three hours, or even less in the Stiftsgarage; the Südstadtgarage on Bonner Talweg even offers a five-euro rate for a whole day.

Back to the city's parking concept, which is already being put into practice on Venusberg. In Weststadt, too, the city already made changes in the area between Endenicher Straße and Endenicher Allee and between the autobahn and Wittelsbacherring at the end of last year and introduced parking with residents' passes on about half of the public parking spaces. While the initial response among residents has been broadly positive, employees of the office buildings and the few tradespeople are more reserved. "It will be more difficult for our clientele, of course," says one office supply store in the Musikerviertel.

Next up are Nordstadt and Südstadt. In the Inner Nordstadt, the citizens' initiative "Peter, Paul und Freunde" has for years been calling for a mobility concept that goes beyond mere "parking space management". In the current municipal plans, there is at least a tendency to reserve certain streets exclusively for residents' parking. But these plans would only work if there were effective checks, as Dieter Schöck, one of the initiative's spokespersons, confirmed to the General-Anzeiger: "At least a third of the cars parked at the side of the road are parking illegally, and there are no checks," he reported, based on a count conducted by the neighbourhood initiative. Double parking, for example on Heerstrasse, is particularly bad, he says. The new fines will be even more severe than before. Schöck is convinced that there would be no problem there if only residents parked in the old town.

(Origialtext: Rüdiger Franz; Translation: Jean Lennox)