Katja Diehl on a possible departure from the car

Traffic in Berlin

According to the Federal Ministry of Transport, there are around 830,000 kilometers of roads in Germany, but only 38,600 kilometers of rails.

(Photo: imago images/photothek)

Dusseldorf With her demand, Katja Diehl is deliberately provocative: “Everyone should have the right to lead a life without their own car.” In her book “Autocorrect. Mobility for a world worth living in” traffic expert Diehl questions the omnipotence of the car in Germany. The Hamburg native not only explains how the car became the number one means of transport, but also shows the constraints that keep making people dependent on the car. So it’s no surprise that the traffic turnaround hasn’t happened yet.

Diehl has been fighting for the issue for 15 years. She is the national board member of the Verkehrsclub Deutschland, produces a mobility podcast, works as an expert on various committees and is particularly committed to the mobility needs of women.

In order to call for an #autocorrection, as Diehl calls it, you have to understand where the Germans’ obsession with cars comes from. Diehl takes the reader back to a time when the car did not yet have the status of a saint it has today.

It dissects the image of the best of all modes of transport that has been carefully constructed by the car lobby since the post-war period – and shows readers the privileges they have given cars over the course of time. The displacement of cyclists and pedestrians onto a narrow sidewalk, while the car has its own space, the street. And they also claim a parking space right in front of their own door.

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The result: the car dominates Germany. The numbers speak for Diehl’s thesis. According to the Federal Ministry of Transport, there are around 830,000 kilometers of roads in the country, but only 38,600 kilometers of rails.

Katja Diehl: Autocorrect. Mobility for a world worth living in.
S Fisher
Frankfurt 2022
272 pages
18.00 euros

Diehl dedicates himself extensively to the privileges of the car – the lack of a speed limit or the company car privilege. But under no circumstances should the book be understood as the sole criticism of the car. “With my book and my work under the hashtag #autocorrection, I’m not turning against the car – I’m rather turning to the people who are sitting in the car,” writes Diehl. Instead of seeing mobility in purely economic terms, the focus must be on people again.

That’s why Diehl shows how the focus on the car determines mobility and who primarily benefits from it. It’s no big surprise that it’s mostly men. They have company cars more often, they manage everything by car more often, they plan cities and traffic.

>> Read here: Researcher Maja Göpel in an interview: “Transformation is more than technological progress”

Women, on the other hand, have different needs, take on more care work and therefore have a different process. Instead of driving from A to B like most men, they often still drive via C and D. Routes that they often have to cover with poorly developed local public transport or by bike.

You can’t do it without a car

This is already a problem in the cities – not to mention rural areas. “We need alternatives that are as comfortable as owning a car,” writes Diehl. But not everyone can afford a car. A mid-range car costs an average of 300 euros a month. That is why Diehl advocates moving the costs back to an equal level for everyone. So that driving becomes more affordable. After all, it will not be possible to do without a car in the future either.

Again and again, Diehl turns to the readers directly with questions: “Do you really have to drive a car? Why do you want to travel this distance by car?” Questions that she asked 40 people, among others. People who use the car differently than the average white straight male because of age, disability or sexual orientation. Interesting perspectives emerge; for many people, as Diehl describes it, the car is just the hated means of transport for a purpose.

Again and again there is a lack of inclusion, of the will to create real alternatives so that people could do without the car. This approach is characteristic of Diehl: She doesn’t want to talk about people, but with them.

And that’s where the core of the book reveals itself: Diehl gives a clever, well-narrated summary of why the traffic turnaround has failed so far. But she tells nothing groundbreaking new. Nor does she have to. Because the author encourages self-reflection, to question learned movement patterns and calls on each individual to take action so that the traffic turnaround is successful.

You can register for the award ceremony of the German Business Book Prize here.

More: The secret deal in the dispute over the company car privilege

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