Berlin. It is only an adjective that can be found in the most recent decision of the coalition committee of the SPD, Greens and FDP. But it has what it takes for another row about climate protection. The SPD, Greens and FDP want to change the climate protection law “at the same time” as well as road traffic law, as stated in the traffic light “modernization package”.
So far there has been a big bang on both projects, especially between the FDP and the Greens. That should be the end of it. But now the adjective “at the same time” ensures that the self-proclaimed progressive coalition is once again standing still.
For the Greens, this is an unpleasant message for their own clientele. After all, it was considered a success of the previous government that every minister had to commit to climate protection.
It is all the more important for the climate protection party that something happens in road traffic law: In the future, “the goals of climate and environmental protection” should also be taken into account there and not just the goals of safe and flowing car traffic as has been the case up to now. Mayors and city parliaments could therefore more easily decide on zebra crossings, traffic lights or 30 km/h zones in the future.
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Swantje Michaelsen, the responsible rapporteur for the Greens in the Bundestag, is pushing for changes soon: “We finally need an infrastructure in which everyone can travel safely.” She refers to an initiative by 640 municipalities that are demanding more leeway for a city worth living in.
“The municipalities want flexibility,” agrees SPD reporter Mathias Stein. He expects the Department of Transportation to pick up the pace and “put something forward in the next few weeks.”
Michaelsen says that the SPD and the Greens want a “paradigm shift that will give the municipalities more decision-making leeway in the future and not a federal law that slows down secure infrastructure with a narrow framework”. But Wissing refuses, especially a 30 km/h on inner-city main streets.
The coalition rapporteurs consulted twice with the ministry. But an agreement is not in sight. In a “working draft” available to the Handelsblatt, the ministry only proposes minor changes. A municipality would therefore have to prove that a regulation actually protects the environment and does not impair safe and flowing traffic.
“The Minister of Transport’s draft bill must implement what is in the coalition agreement,” demands Michaelsen. The word “climate protection” is missing entirely. The officials’ first suggestion was “not what we had imagined,” says Stein.
The department of the Federal Minister of Transport has again missed its climate targets.
(Photo: dpa)
Like the SPD and the Greens, the state transport ministers are also demanding more leeway. They have developed proposals under the leadership of Hamburg Transport Senator Anjes Tjarks (Greens). It’s about bus lanes and “environmental lanes” for e-cars, which municipalities can identify more easily, as well as better pedestrian crossings. The Federal Ministry wants to use this to initiate a small reform of the road traffic regulations. But this is no substitute for a major reform, it said in Hamburg.
Right of way for cyclists and pedestrians
The road traffic regulations are “rather a strict and in parts outdated ‘one size fits all’ solution”, criticizes Senator Tjarks. He cites the 30 km/h limit as an example. “Here, the cities and municipalities have so far had far too little scope for decision-making to really set the maximum speed appropriate for the local conditions,” he says. “We want to change that.”
Something is already changing on a small scale, for example with the rules for the street space, which the Research Society for Roads and Traffic issues. In the committee, practitioners and scientists define regulations for road traffic, which previously focused on the car. For the first time in its hundred-year history, pedestrians and cyclists have the right of way on city streets. Cycle paths, traffic lanes and protective lanes should be wider than before. As little space as possible should be used for parking spaces, as much as possible for green spaces.
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“Something has to happen when it comes to urban street design,” says working group chair Jürgen Gerlach, a professor at the University of Wuppertal. There is a lot of scope to get people planning to do less by car and more by bike or on foot. A “climate check for traffic planning” could follow soon. Independent bodies would use it to check whether as much climate protection as possible is being used in traffic planning in the development plan.
Numerous municipalities would like more leeway to make transport more climate-friendly.
(Photo: dpa)
But above all is the law. “In the first half of the year,” it is said, the ministry intends to present a draft for road traffic law. Only then does the parliamentary process begin. “By the end of the year,” the Bundestag could make a decision, says Michaelsen.
There will also be no new climate protection law for that long. Until then, things could get uncomfortable for Wissing: This Monday, the Council of Experts for Climate Issues will confirm that cars, trucks, trains, ships and planes have again caused far more greenhouse gas emissions in 2022 than they are allowed to do under the Climate Protection Act.
Wissing has three months to present an effective immediate program, as required by law. Incidentally, lawsuits from environmental organizations are pending in court because the climate targets are not being met and the current emergency programs are not sufficient. The minister takes the position: “It was not the Ministry of Transport that failed to meet the climate targets, but society as a whole.” Everyone who is mobile causes emissions. These, in turn, cannot be reduced in the short term, since people now have to be mobile.
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