Frankfurt: There is less and less space for cars on the streets

In Frankfurt, the demands of other road users are increasing. People should be encouraged to switch to bicycles. Free parking spaces for cars are becoming scarce.

FRANKFURT – If you want to buy a car in the Japanese capital of Tokyo, you must provide proof of a parking space – otherwise you will not get body approval. Parking spaces there cost at least 400 euros per month; Pull it away drastically. The result: only one in four Tokyo residents own a car. Every second inhabitant lives in Frankfurt. Tokyo and Frankfurt are separate worlds, but the problems are more and more similar in the world’s major cities – especially with parking.

Many motorists in Germany believe that they have the right to park their property – the car – in public places; It is not uncommon to use the argument that after all one pays car tax for it. However, it is not only the management of parking spaces on public roads that is increasingly preventing this claim: in recent times, other road users have also been competing with drivers for a limited space. Bike lanes where you parked your car before are marked; Corners that have been illegally used to park vehicles will be surveyed. Bicycle parking facilities are being established in more and more areas.

Frankfurt: Bicycle box with two parking spaces

About a dozen parking spaces have disappeared at the northern exit of the Höchst train station because a bicycle parking system was installed there and had to be expanded within a very short time.

The first privately used bicycle box will open in public on Monday on Ludwigshafener Strasse 27. The bicycle garage, installed in two parking spaces, is left to one family for a one-time fee of five years. The usage model is based on the “bicycle garages close to home” pilot project, through which the city wants to encourage more people to switch from cars to bikes. Two years ago, the Road Construction and Development Office set up the first bike garage in Hegelstrasse at the northern end. Now the model project is being expanded in Höchst: On Monday, outgoing head of transport Klaus Osterling (SPD) wants to hand over the keys to users.

Long-term parking is permitted on public roads in Frankfurt

The bike garage is built on a street where residents can park on one side and on the other – the side where the bike box is now – parking is still allowed without restrictions. Streets without resident parking or other restrictions are becoming increasingly rare. Problem: According to the Road Traffic Regulations (StVO), there are no regulations that generally specify parking time.

This means: – Long-term parking is allowed in public parking lots or streets, provided that there is no sign restricting the parking time. Smart minds often take advantage of this and permanently park vehicles with advertising media on busy streets, thus reducing the number of parking spaces available. The only rule: parked vehicles must be properly registered and have a valid TÜV sticker.

Fewer and fewer free public parking spaces in Frankfurt’s street space

In the future, there will be fewer and fewer free public parking spaces on the street, which means that competition will grow exponentially in the farthest parts of the city, especially as public transport allows access to the city directly behind a tariff limit, where in West Frankfurt: to S – Sindlingen and Zeilsheim train stations, as well as in Höchst, entire streets are closed during the day by cars from the Main-Taunus district, drivers of which shy away from the expensive inner-city parking garages and the additional tariff level; In addition, there are long-term car parks at airports such as Schwannheim. Parking spaces that were in public use, for example at Sindlinger Train Station, are run by the park companies and the corresponding shuttle carriers – sometimes illegally, as recently stopped by the Public Order Office in Nied-Süd.

By the way: If you keep an empty parking space without applying for a ban on stopping a mobile phone, then you need to take into account the fact that this will be perceived as coercion – a criminal offense. This also applies to a moving truck, because the blockade is an unacceptable interference with road traffic. (HV)

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