Sossenheimer wants more space for pedestrians and cyclists

Another wish for the residents of West Frankfurt: better links with neighboring communities.

FRANKFURT – The Sussenheimrin family is upset. “Everything in the area is designed for cars. You can’t pass anywhere on foot or by bike,” says Sibylle Krug – referring to the contact with Carl-Sonnenschein-Siedlung. If you want to go to the supermarkets on the left of Siegener Strasse, you have to contend with long detours. “You can only get there via the main street or by zigzagging through the cemetery.” And you are also cut off from the greenbelt in the south. “Without a direct lane, you have to walk 20 minutes next to the highway. It’s impossible.”

Plan: A local mobility concept for the region

In order to change that, she and nearly 50 other Sossenheimers came to the Volkshaus on Monday evening. The City Planning and District Administration Office has invited the Barnard Group to a citizen workshop there. Engineering firm Bernard was commissioned last year to create a local mobility concept as part of the “Sossenheim Social Cohesion” project. The aim of the evening is to draw on the local knowledge of the population and to announce the so-called “Major Objectives”. “We want to know what’s important to you. Better footpaths? Or more public transportation?” asks project manager Dirk Kupschlager.

He’s been out with his colleagues in the area for the past few months. Based on the Integrated Urban Development Concept (ISEK) and household survey in October, he and his staff tracked more than 150 reports. 257 citizens participated in the survey.

Sossenheimer is relatively environmentally friendly

Key finding: Sossenheimers cover more than half of all trips by “green transportation” (on foot, by bike, or by public transport), and in urban areas the figure rises to 73 percent. Respondents wished for more and better footpaths and footpaths.

The engineering office has formulated the main objectives from this; They are inscribed on four dividing wall stations. At each station, residents are allowed to place two stickers next to the data most important to them. Opinions differ, particularly when it comes to “road space”: while about half want to continue designing for car traffic, the rest want the opposite. However, residents agree to cycling and pedestrian traffic. The most important hubs are the main streets, and links must be improved with neighboring communities rather than with the city.

Locals mark routes on maps that they often cover by bike or on foot and where they would like new trails. Barbara Zovert Dietrich would like to get a better connection with Eschborn. “This is my ride. The lanes on the highway are tough,” she says.

A cycle path along Siegener Straße can be imagined

It would be possible to envision a bike path along Siegener Straße or an underpass improvement in Sulzbach. “It’s very small and dark. There are already concrete ideas, for example to widen the path.”

“The main problem is that there are not enough lanes for pedestrians and cyclists. As in a funnel, one is always led into the main street. Sussenheim is actually a street with houses to the left and to the right,” Marc de la Vauchardiere criticizes. Andreas Will hopes for a renewal between Michaelstraße and the small bridge over Sulzbach. “As a result of the tremors, visible cracks occurred in ten buildings,” says the President of the History Society. The city has been pushing this issue for 20 years. “Now the citizens’ initiative is taking shape,” he says. Others disrupted traffic in the city centre. Hansi Suffert criticizes: “The small intersections are always off.” “Defined restricted areas or flex columns”, this is how the problem can be solved.

Project manager Dirk Kopperschläger notes everything exactly. After evaluating citizen proposals, the Planning Office will develop a transportation concept that will be presented to the Sixth District Advisory Council in May. Before the public concept is presented to the public in October or November, there will be several neighborhood tours in the summer. Here, too, locals can contribute their local knowledge and ideas.