Category Archives: Parken

Senators drag feet over illegal parking

In our article on pavement parking from January 2021, we drew attention to a lawsuit pending at the Bremen Administrative Court against illegal pavement parking. Now there is a judgement: it was published on 22.2.22 and, among other things, upholds the plaintiffs’ claim that parking on the pavement – unless authorised by signage – is illegal, and that 


Biebricher Straße in Bremen, Foto: Wolfgang Köhler-Naumann

Continue reading Senators drag feet over illegal parking

Pavement Parking and Accessibility

There is hardly an issue in Bremen that is as heated as the parking of cars in residential areas. Questions like these arise: Who does resident parking help? Is parking on pavements permissible? And if so, under what conditions? What rights do pedestrians have? The debate is characterised by assumptions and unsubstantiated claims on the part of both proponents and opponents of a sustainable traffic turnaround. Reason enough to take a look at the binding provisions of road and traffic law in a series of articles on Bremenize. Continue reading Pavement Parking and Accessibility

Accessibility in Bremen Traffic (Part A: Road Law)

Part 1 : The legal Situation on Bremen’s Streets

Public space is always a scarce commodity in cities that have grown over time without central planning.  Ever more, and ever bigger, vehicles are competing for the same amount of space.  At the same time,  private automobiles are continuing to push other modes of transport out of this public space.  Currently, political as well as legal resistance to this situation is growing, supported by environmental organisations such as BUND, NABU, citizens‘ and neighbourhood initiatives, and transport organisations such as ADFC, VCD; Fuss e.V., Forum for Transportation Transformation („Forum Verkehrswende“), Autofreier Stadttraum („Auto Free City Space/City Dreams“) and Coalition for Transportation Transformation (“Bündnis Verkehrswende“).  In addition, many citizens have filed suit against the city-state for its lack of action against vehicles parked illegally on sidewalks.  This problem is further complicated by electric scooters parked on sidewalks  In the summer of 2020, a visually impaired man was seriously injured in Bremen when he tripped over an electric scooter. He has  filed suit against the city-state for not protecting him from injury.

Parking on the sidewalk in Mindener Strasse in Peterswerder in Bremen (foto: Olaf Dilling)

Continue reading Accessibility in Bremen Traffic (Part A: Road Law)

Platz Da! Parliament Agrees Compromise

Platz Da! (There’s Space!) Bremen has collected 6,000 signatures in the Hanseatic city and held endless debates with politicians to make more space in Bremen for all people. Platz da! has fought for state-wide parking management, for the abolition of  parking on footpaths and cycle paths, for a proper enforcement of parking bans and for a transport transition in the city. The “comprehensive” aspect of their proposals was turned down by the ruling coalition, principally by the Social Democrats, but at least parking management is to be introduced in some districts – Mitte, Östliche Vorstadt, Schwachhausen, Findorff, Walle and Neustadt. It has been a long battle, but on 17 November 2020 parliament agreed the compromise. As an admonition and reminder for the members of parliament, the activists came to the Bürgerschaft…

Lost and found – what mayors (also) do elsewhere …

The mayor of Lauterecken-Wolfstein (a village in Palatinate, Germany) published a remarkable advertisement in the local newspaper in July with a very special thank you (see below). Imagine, how well it would do if the mayor, the senator for home affairs and the transport senator in the city of Bremen were to give similar recognition …! Core message of the ad: It is a special thank you in the name of children, parents with strollers, people in wheelchairs etc. in particular to all, who park their cars in a legally correct way, i.e. to those who are not mis-using the side walks for pedestrians in an illegal manner.

Parking Space Management / Fee-Based Parking – A Definition of Terms

In the objectives of the recently elected Bremen state government, regulation and limitation of parking are at the forefront. Strategic measures from the Bremen Transport Development Plan 2025 have now finally been included in the operative catalogue of objectives of our state government.

In addition, civil society is increasingly calling for a decisive change in transport policy. Among other things, it no longer accepts the unsustainable situation in many urban neighbourhoods caused by illegally parked cars and the climate-damaging “successes” of an automobile industry advertising the purchase of large cars against all common well-being:

– be it that on a local level the Bremer Verkehrswende-Bündnis has adopted the demands for comprehensive fee-based parking as an essential lever for the societal move “away from the car – towards a sustainable transport and a city worth living in”,
– be it that the demands for a stepwise reduction in the number of parking spaces, for city tolls and consistent charging of parking are now clearly demanded by the many groups that support the climate strikes in Bremen,
– be it that a growing number of associations and groups operating nationwide make themselves heard and demand a clear renunciation of the radical (almost) inaction from federal and state governments.

With this post, I would like to explain the term “parking space management” and explore its context in order to be able to be more linguistically uniform in our demands regarding such questions as “reclaiming public space” and indeed “parking” and to give them ever stronger impact.

What is parking space management Continue reading Parking Space Management / Fee-Based Parking – A Definition of Terms

The Great Tram Stop Adventure

An agitated lady stands at the Busestraße tram stop. “I have to take risks just to get to the bus stop”, she says. She pushes her rollator along the footpath and cycle path between the densely parked cars, lightly touches a vehicle door and daringly steps on to the road. A vehicle in front of her is already racing along the road. Her view is completely blocked. She yanks back her rollator in shock, which unfortunately has no magic eyes to tell her if the road is clear.

A vehicle parked on the protective strip between road and cycle path, a sanitation company, has gotten hold of a “weekend parking lot” here on the pedestrian and cycle path area and enjoys it under the eyes of a lethargic authority, not to mention the police.“Company car park” of a sanitary company (Photo: Bernd Thomsen)

But the offender is not alone. A considerable number of parking offenders have been supporting him for years, in disregard of the relevant traffic regulations .- Has the authority failed in its duties due to a lack of traffic monitoring? Consistent traffic monitoring here is essential, with regular speeding traffic. Continue reading The Great Tram Stop Adventure

Parking Day: Or how to civilise a traffic hell  

The Friedrich-Ebert-Strasse in the Neustadt district of Bremen is heavily congested, or better said: a four-lane traffic hell.  People who live on this road are exposed to unbearable levels of noise and air pollution every day. Because this road – 30 m wide, then 60 m wide before it turns into the Wilhelm-Kaisen-Bridge – offers generous space for motorized traffic. Pedestrians and cyclists, on the other hand, have to share the narrow (4 m) sidewalk, and can hardly ever cross the road safely.


Not much space for everyday cyclists, Foto: Wolfgang Köhler-Naumann

Should this be the case? Is this appropriate for a modern urban environment?

We believe it is not. We wanted to show that there is another way to organize public space. Continue reading Parking Day: Or how to civilise a traffic hell  

Resident Parking – Transport Transition or Motorist Appeasement?

The new Draft Agreement on Cooperation in a Government Coalition for Bremen, 2019-2023 (from now on here called Koa Treaty) promises to install resident parking, to ban illegal parking and to push back the illegal practice of parking on pavements with two wheels. Hooray! Or not to Hooray?


Illegal Parking in Bremen – Foto: Beatrix Wupperman

It literally says: “We will consistently manage public parking space, i.e. we will manage the inner-city areas and identify resident parking.”

But we have to be careful: resident parking in Germany is super cheap. What is the upshot? Continue reading Resident Parking – Transport Transition or Motorist Appeasement?

The Time Is Ripe – Parking Must Cost

The New Bremen Politics of Parking

The newly-elected Bremen coalition government has agreed ambitious changes to transport policy, and placed them at the forefront of the coalition agreement (Draft Agreement on Cooperation in a Government Coalition for Bremen, 2019-2023), hereafter referred to as the “Koa Treaty”.  Meanwhile this draft has been approved internally by all parties of the coalition and it will thus be put into effect by the coalition parties in the near future.

At the same time, the Bremen Alliance for Transport Change -on the basis of the findings of the conference held in Oct. 2018– has set itself the goal of achieving the practical implementation of its core requirement, the introduction of a city-wide management of public parking areas in Bremen, making parking chargeable all over the place.

This post opens a series on the topic “Management of public parking spaces”. The aim is to provide activists in Bremen with a common conceptual and factual framework for their actions in initiatives, associations, district councils, etc.

Continue reading The Time Is Ripe – Parking Must Cost