Rheingasse in Bonn Temporary one-way street to alleviate traffic chaos
Bonn · After massive criticism of the closure to traffic on the northern side of the Rhine, the Bonn council coalition has called on the administration to make improvements. The Rheingasse will now become a temporary one-way street. If that does not help, further measures are to follow.
After closing the northern side of the Rhine to traffic, the city administration is to improve the traffic routing from Rheingasse so that long traffic jams no longer form on the southern part of Uferstrasse from zweite Fährgasse to Rheingasse, which at times extend far into Adenauerallee.
This includes designating Rheingasse a temporary one-way street in the direction of Rathausgasse. The amendment was decided upon in a meeting late Thursday evening by the city council coalition of Greens, SPD, Left and Volt. The FDP faction had already filed an urgent motion to lift the closure (on the north Rhine) immediately, but without success.
This coming Monday, workers are to begin marking the road. On Friday, the administration wanted to inform all residents who live on Rheingasse about the changes. The traffic lights at the corner of Belderberg and Rheingasse have already been readjusted, allowing traffic to flow more quickly, said Helmut Wiesner, the city's construction manager. He is responsible for implementing the new traffic management system.
The administration now plans to observe for a week whether the measures are having an effect. In a special meeting scheduled for May 17, the traffic committee will be asked to partially reverse the measures and also to cancel the one-way system on Brassertufer until the end of the construction site at Koblenzer Tor if there is no improvement.
Wiesner also communicated that a dismantling of the already established protected bicycle lanes on the northern bank of the Rhine would not happen without a major effort. In the council meeting, City Planning expressly pointed out that the politicians had instructed the administration to carry out initial traffic-calming interventions on the banks of the Rhine with the aim of creating more space for cyclists and pedestrians.
Full streets in the southern part of the city
The road closure at the north of the Rhine was done "without necessity", said Achim Schröder (FDP). The changes led to full side streets in the Südstadt (south of Bonn), leading the residents to complain and with good reason, said Julia Polley (CDU). SPD councilwoman Gabi Mayer said her impression was "that nothing had been considered at the city level". The day before, she had called on social media for the closure to be lifted. She pointed out, among other things, the criticism coming from a print store on Rathausgasse, which was hardly accessible to customers and suppliers anymore. Hartwig Lohmeyer from the Rheingrün group said that it could have waited until the end of the Koblenzer Tor construction work. It creates a danger of "agitating the citizens where they are then against actually sensible traffic projects”.
Annette Standop, head of the Green Party's council faction, explained that the Greens take the criticism and suggestions about the problems with the new traffic routing "very seriously". However, they consider the current situation to be a teething problem. "We are sticking to a far-reaching redirection of traffic away from private cars and towards public transport, bicycles and pedestrian traffic," she said - especially for climate protection reasons.
