Berlin on Verge of Creating Gigantic Car-Free Zone
We love electric vehicles here on CleanTechnica because they are cleantech that cut emissions from the transportation sector — to a tremendous degree. They are also cool tech and fun. However, there’s something they don’t beat — human-powered transport. Biking and walking are much preferred for transportation needs. Unfortunately, most cities have not been developed to be hospitable to bicyclists and pedestrians.
I have lived in some cities that are exceptionally bike friendly and pedestrian friendly, and a key element they had were large car-free zones, especially in the city center. Berlin is now looking to enter this exclusive, high-livability world and make its city center a car-free zone.
And we’re not just talking about a street or two. The car-free zone would be larger than Manhattan!
“Berlin could soon set the bar for human-centered cities around the world, now that a long-sought ballot measure is finally being released from political limbo,” Streetsblog writes. “A decision on Wednesday by the Berlin Constitutional Court allows a long-stalled initiative by the advocacy group Volksentscheid Berlin Autofrei (‘Ballot Measure for an Auto-Free Berlin’) to continue gathering signatures for a referendum to create a zone in the center of the German capital that would be free of almost all private automobiles.”
This is a campaign that has been running since 2020! The boundary of the car-free zone would be Berlin’s Ringbahn — 22 miles of railroad that circles the city center.
There are a variety of exceptions in the proposed car ban, but without a doubt, this would be a monumentous change that would more or less keep motor vehicles out of a core area of Berlin and put the city on the map in one more major way. Naturally, though, there’s a massive pro-car contingent that are opposed to the idea and have been pushing back on it already. The Berlin Senate, for example, contested that this proposal was unconstitutional, and this delayed the ballot measure for three freakin’ years. But the initiative is moving forward again, and we could have a vote on it next year.
“The group’s efforts had already reached the initial, 50,000-signature threshold before a series of procedural impediments threw a wrench in their effort. Wednesday’s court decision pushes the long-delayed process forward, beginning with a debate at the Berlin House of Representatives, followed by another round of signature collection that would allow the referendum to take place in 2026, the group said.”
“Metropolises around the world have long been competing to make their streets more livable — from Paris to Bogotá, people are reclaiming public space,” said Benni Wasmer, spokesperson for the initiative. “But the [Berlin Senate has been] setting Berlin back decades in its transport policy. Only our law makes Parisian conditions possible in Berlin — from a legal perspective.”
We will have to see where this goes, but it is an exciting development that could help Berlin to become much more livable and greener, and then could also inspire such changes in other major cities (and smaller cities) across the world.
Featured image by wal_172619 from Pixabay
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