**Parking the car for free in the city, always green lights: According to the FDP, this could make the city centers more attractive. Hanover’s Green mayor Onay disagrees. And the FDP? He does not want an “ideological mobility policy”.**
>The FDP’s pro-motorist plan for more attractive city centres has triggered the expected sharp criticism from the Greens. Their parliamentary group vice-chairman Andreas Audretsch and also the Green transport policy spokesman Stefan Gelbhaar rejected the plans of the government partner as “not sensible” and as a “cheap one-pager”.
>
>Specifically, the FDP proposes to make driving in city centres more attractive again – in other words, the complete opposite of efforts to ban cars from city centres. Parking is to be free again, and a nationwide parking flat rate based on the model of the Deutschlandticket is also conceivable, according to the FDP. In addition: fewer cycle streets and pedestrian zones, more green traffic light waves.
## “Dangerous misconception”
>The FDP’s plan is therefore specifically aimed at the cities and municipalities. They would have to implement this. One person who has to deal with city traffic on a daily basis is Hanover’s mayor Belit Onay. The Green politician warns: “It is a dangerous misconception that more car traffic will create more economic strength in the city centres.”
>
>A decisive lever for revitalizing the city centers is not more car traffic, Onay told the newspapers of the Funke media group. “A policy purely for the car means a danger for the location and retail.” This is also a cross-party consensus in the municipalities, he said, referring to statements in this regard, for example by the German Association of Cities, as well as to the results of scientific studies on the subject.
## Inner cities must also be accessible by car
>Shops in the city centres can only survive against the competition from online trade “if people like to be there”, Onay was convinced. It is important that city centres can also be reached by car, said the Green politician. However, this should not mean more parking areas and more through traffic. These are “allocated resources”.
>
>Onay has been mayor of the capital of Lower Saxony since 2019. A good 500,000 people live here, and thousands of commuters also come to the city. Onay’s political goals include an “almost car-free” city center by 2030. However, it is questionable whether he can implement this.
## Inner cities must also be accessible by car
>Shops in the city centres can only survive against the competition from online trade “if people like to be there”, Onay was convinced. It is important that city centres can also be reached by car, said the Green politician. However, this should not mean more parking areas and more through traffic. These are “allocated resources”.
>
>Onay has been mayor of the capital of Lower Saxony since 2019. A good 500,000 people live here, and thousands of commuters also come to the city. Onay’s political goals include an “almost car-free” city center by 2030. However, it is questionable whether he can implement this.
## FDP against “ideological mobility policy”
>”We don’t want an ideological mobility policy,” FDP General Secretary Bijan Djir-Sarai made clear with a view to his party’s car decisions. “There is no good and no bad mobility.” The FDP wants to enable the form of mobility that is “asked and demanded locally”.
>
>Brandenburg’s FDP leader Zyon Braun, who helped develop the paper, called for more “freedom of choice in mobility”. This also includes the car. The FDP will not participate in the “culture war against the car” because many people are dependent on it, especially in rural areas. Braun named commuters and senior citizens, among others. “A one-sided culture war against the car is a culture war against the reality of people’s lives, especially in Brandenburg and in rural regions.”
## “Not a pro-car campaign”
>The Liberals’ plan is “not a pro-car campaign,” stressed the party leader from Brandenburg, where state elections will take place at the end of September. He pointed out that the 49-euro ticket for local transport is publicly subsidised and thus also supported in solidarity by people in those regions that are not connected to local transport.
>
>The fact that the FDP is trying to antagonize the Greens and also the SPD in the traffic light with a renewed irritating topic was rejected by General Secretary Djir-Sarai. The coalition partners SPD and Greens also make use of other issues “to say what their own convictions and ideas are,” he said. “That’s what we’re doing.”
>
>In the Bild newspaper yesterday, he had said that it was an explicit alternative to the Greens. The FDP is “actively opposed to a green policy of paternalism”.
!ping Germany
NightAlternative9896 on
“Parking the car for free in the city … could make city centers more attractive.”
🎵I think I’ve seen this film before, and I didn’t like the ending.
2 Comments
Translated:
**Parking the car for free in the city, always green lights: According to the FDP, this could make the city centers more attractive. Hanover’s Green mayor Onay disagrees. And the FDP? He does not want an “ideological mobility policy”.**
>The FDP’s pro-motorist plan for more attractive city centres has triggered the expected sharp criticism from the Greens. Their parliamentary group vice-chairman Andreas Audretsch and also the Green transport policy spokesman Stefan Gelbhaar rejected the plans of the government partner as “not sensible” and as a “cheap one-pager”.
>
>Specifically, the FDP proposes to make driving in city centres more attractive again – in other words, the complete opposite of efforts to ban cars from city centres. Parking is to be free again, and a nationwide parking flat rate based on the model of the Deutschlandticket is also conceivable, according to the FDP. In addition: fewer cycle streets and pedestrian zones, more green traffic light waves.
## “Dangerous misconception”
>The FDP’s plan is therefore specifically aimed at the cities and municipalities. They would have to implement this. One person who has to deal with city traffic on a daily basis is Hanover’s mayor Belit Onay. The Green politician warns: “It is a dangerous misconception that more car traffic will create more economic strength in the city centres.”
>
>A decisive lever for revitalizing the city centers is not more car traffic, Onay told the newspapers of the Funke media group. “A policy purely for the car means a danger for the location and retail.” This is also a cross-party consensus in the municipalities, he said, referring to statements in this regard, for example by the German Association of Cities, as well as to the results of scientific studies on the subject.
## Inner cities must also be accessible by car
>Shops in the city centres can only survive against the competition from online trade “if people like to be there”, Onay was convinced. It is important that city centres can also be reached by car, said the Green politician. However, this should not mean more parking areas and more through traffic. These are “allocated resources”.
>
>Onay has been mayor of the capital of Lower Saxony since 2019. A good 500,000 people live here, and thousands of commuters also come to the city. Onay’s political goals include an “almost car-free” city center by 2030. However, it is questionable whether he can implement this.
## Inner cities must also be accessible by car
>Shops in the city centres can only survive against the competition from online trade “if people like to be there”, Onay was convinced. It is important that city centres can also be reached by car, said the Green politician. However, this should not mean more parking areas and more through traffic. These are “allocated resources”.
>
>Onay has been mayor of the capital of Lower Saxony since 2019. A good 500,000 people live here, and thousands of commuters also come to the city. Onay’s political goals include an “almost car-free” city center by 2030. However, it is questionable whether he can implement this.
## FDP against “ideological mobility policy”
>”We don’t want an ideological mobility policy,” FDP General Secretary Bijan Djir-Sarai made clear with a view to his party’s car decisions. “There is no good and no bad mobility.” The FDP wants to enable the form of mobility that is “asked and demanded locally”.
>
>Brandenburg’s FDP leader Zyon Braun, who helped develop the paper, called for more “freedom of choice in mobility”. This also includes the car. The FDP will not participate in the “culture war against the car” because many people are dependent on it, especially in rural areas. Braun named commuters and senior citizens, among others. “A one-sided culture war against the car is a culture war against the reality of people’s lives, especially in Brandenburg and in rural regions.”
## “Not a pro-car campaign”
>The Liberals’ plan is “not a pro-car campaign,” stressed the party leader from Brandenburg, where state elections will take place at the end of September. He pointed out that the 49-euro ticket for local transport is publicly subsidised and thus also supported in solidarity by people in those regions that are not connected to local transport.
>
>The fact that the FDP is trying to antagonize the Greens and also the SPD in the traffic light with a renewed irritating topic was rejected by General Secretary Djir-Sarai. The coalition partners SPD and Greens also make use of other issues “to say what their own convictions and ideas are,” he said. “That’s what we’re doing.”
>
>In the Bild newspaper yesterday, he had said that it was an explicit alternative to the Greens. The FDP is “actively opposed to a green policy of paternalism”.
!ping Germany
“Parking the car for free in the city … could make city centers more attractive.”
🎵I think I’ve seen this film before, and I didn’t like the ending.