Kids or Cars?

The hilarious everyday experience of transport campaigns in Bremen (an extract)

Temporary play street: Turned down

– Application for cycle stands and bollards on pavements to keep the street entrance clear for emergency vehicles: Turned down– Illegal parking on the pavement: Silently tolerated by the authorities

– Application for residents’ parking: Under discussion

– Special slow zone (Begegnungszone) in front of the elementary school: Application coming up, because existing bans on parking are ignored

We could go on and on. An apt name might be “Bremen’s List Of Transport Sins”. BLOTS, indeed. But let’s hear from Bettina Rabe. With other parents she founded a parents’ initiative in Bremen-Findorff, Germany. The group wants less wheeled metal in its town quarter.

Principle counterparty: The bureacracy trap, i.e. responsibility is shuffed onto local councils, but they cannot decide without the administration for roads and transport in Bremen, in short: ASV

Powerless supporter: The local council, a democratically elected body

Possible cooperator: The head of the nearby trade fair company

Click on CC to choose English subtitles

Epilogue from the parents’ campaign:

“Our quarter „Bürgerweide“ is an outlaws’ parking zone, where the Highway Code ceases to exist. Cars may park whereever they decide to, ignoring the obvious needs of residents, may it be for kids going to school, disabled or elderly people with wheel chairs or Zimmer frames or even for ambulances or the fire brigade. There is no lack of parking lots – in the area of the near-by trade fair there are 2,800. Clearly, if on-street parking involved a fee, far fewer cars would bother to spend 10 minutes searching for a spot on these streets, and illegal parking would be minimised”.

8 thoughts on “Kids or Cars?

    1. Ganz genau! Das wäre zumindest ein erster Schritt. Aber das Dorf Bremen könnte noch schöner werden, mit weniger Autos insgesamt und mehr Platz zum Leben.

  1. Tolles und wichtiges Interview auf einem tollen Blog!
    Ich habe mir erlaubt, diesen Beitrag auf unserem Blog zu verlinken, der sich mit dem Thema temporäre Spielstraßen auseinandersetzt.

    1. Das ist prima, Olaf, wir sind sehr an Zusammenarbeit zwischen uns Inis interessiert. Schickst Du uns noch einen Link zu Eurem Blog und unserem verlinkten Beitrag?

        1. Du hast Recht, Olaf! Aber noch mal herzlichen Dank für das Verlinken und das Lob für uns!

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