Along with Braunschweig, Erfurt, Flensburg and Meissen, Wiesbaden is one of five German model cities that want to expand pedestrian traffic and are receiving expert advice from the Pedestrian Traffic Association. In March of this year, an almost 80-page project report was presented in the town hall, which submits concrete proposals for 21 locations in the chosen model quarter, the Bierstadt district. Specifically, it was proposed to widen narrow sidewalks, dissolve parking lots or at least reduce their number, plant more trees along the roads, designate traffic-calmed zones, lower curbs, set up bollards, zebra crossings and pedestrian traffic lights, and impose speed limits.

Oliver Bock

Correspondent of the Rhein-Main-Zeitung for the Rheingau-Taunus-Kreis and for Wiesbaden.

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The four-party alliance of the Greens, SPD, Left Party and Volt has taken this as an opportunity to make demands on the administration in order to develop Wiesbaden into a "walkable city". The clearly formulated goal of the parliamentary groups is: a municipality "that invites you to stroll and in which the short distances of less than two kilometers can be covered most directly and comfortably on foot".

It was therefore decided by a majority that a sidewalk width of 2.50 metres should be aimed for in the future for new construction, conversion and renovation of streets in the state capital. Where this is not possible for structural reasons, 1.50 meters should also be sufficient so that at least strollers, wheelchairs and walkers can be moved at these bottlenecks. If possible, the width of the sidewalk should not be restricted by bollards, lanterns, parking ticket machines and charging stations.

Four-party alliance calls for infrastructure improvement

The four-party alliance is also calling for a municipal programme for the continuous improvement of the footpath infrastructure and the closure of gaps in the road network. The keeping of sidewalks free of illegal parkers is to be monitored more closely by the municipal regulatory authorities, and any violations are to be punished consistently.

After all, traffic lights should be switched in such a way that they permanently show pedestrians green in those phases when there are no cars. "Green" for pedestrians should therefore not have to be requested at the push of a button at the traffic lights, but should be the standard at the intersections. The system of digital traffic control would provide the technical possibilities for this.

Criticism from the CDU was mainly about the fact that the application of the cooperation does not make any statements about the costs and financing of the program and the individual elements. However, it was undisputed in the responsible mobility committee that the local knowledge and experience of the respective local advisory councils should be used in the event of concrete changes in the road space.

Only AfD and "Pro Auto" against plans

Fundamental criticism of more commitment to the needs of pedestrians was only from the parliamentary group of the AfD, whose spokesman criticized an "anti-motorist campaign". As expected, there was also criticism from the representative of the "Pro Auto" party, Christian Hill, who railed against a "horror catalogue" of superfluous proposals, a "green utopia" and against a "parking lot theft of biblical proportions".

The four-party alliance bounced off such criticism of its ideas and pushed through its motion – in some points with the support of other parliamentary groups. She is convinced that Wiesbaden should be more consistent than before on its way to becoming a pedestrian-friendly city. After all, every third journey is already made on foot.