Monday, March 16
In a guest article for Tagesspeigel, Kai Wegner (CDU) has sharply criticised the Berlin Autofrei (Berlin car-free) initiative. He has made it clear that he rejects the whole approach, stating, “Politics for a metropolis like Berlin must not function according to the principle of trial and error. Berlin doesn’t need lifestyle experiments, instead it’s about the realities of people’s lives.”
In general, Berlin Autofrei wants to ban cars in the city centre. However, there are many exceptions. More specifically, almost all roads within the S-Bahn ring, apart from federal roads, would become ‘auto-reduced roads’.
This means that private car trips would be limited to twelve days per year. People with disabilities, police, rescue services, garbage collection as well as commercial and delivery traffic would still be allowed to drive in the centre.
Kai Wegner stated that it crosses a border and that the city needs solutions that unite, not “ideologies that exclude”. He additionally claimed that car traffic does not simply disappear, and if the initiative prevailed, it would just relocate to other areas, causing economic consequences, possible job losses and the emigration of companies.
Wenger did not offer any concrete alternatives. The only clear point he made was, “Instead of bans, more offers are needed, especially in local public transport.” The Autofrei initiative began taking signatures on January 9 and now has about 30,000. However, they need 174,000 signatures by May 8 to reach a referendum. If you are a German citizen, you can sign it here.
