The rulers of the city of Baden intend to eliminate 35 per cent of parking spaces in the coming year. The number of parking spaces is to be reduced from 1400 to 900. The trade association is up in arms against this, fearing a loss of turnover. And rightly so!
At odds with the general trend
The measures, which the red-green-governed cities in particular have taken up on their banner, are completely at odds with the general trend. While the population is growing rapidly and, as a logical consequence, the volume of traffic is also increasing, the focus is on reducing infrastructure.
The city of Baden had already launched a similar initiative in the 1980s. The city planner in office at the time announced that they wanted to make private transport in the city more difficult and thus keep it away from the city centre. I let him know in a personal letter at the time: ‘I have taken note of your words and your intentions. You can already write your first success in your notebook: I will avoid the city of Baden in future and spend my money elsewhere!’ Of course, I never got a reply. By the way: the same circles require a sufficient number of parking spaces for the construction of a shopping centre, without which there is otherwise no permit…
And where were all the nature lovers?
I know of a similar example in the town of Brugg, just 10 kilometres from Baden. Also in the 1980s, the relevant circles campaigned for a traffic-free old town centre. The proposal made it to the ballot box. There is no denying that the old town of Brugg was congested at rush hour. At that time, the gap in the motorway network between Zurich and Basel, the A3 through the Fricktal, had not yet been opened up. This construction project was ultimately delayed by around 20 years due to objections and, as a result, became x times more expensive.
Well, the old town of Brugg was free of motorised traffic, with the exception of deliveries. What happened? — Anyone who thought that the old town had mutated into a jewel of an unspoilt world that attracted visitors in droves was soon proved wrong. All the previously vociferous nature boys and girls failed to materialise. The old town became an orphanage. The tenants of the shops located there changed almost every six months — they could not exist due to a lack of passers-by. People preferred to drive to the nearby shopping centre at Neumarkt I and II, drive their car into the underground car park, fill their trolley, fill their boot and then drive off again.
Environmental protection (!?)
As already mentioned, if you follow the transport planning of many cities such as Zurich, Basel, Lucerne, Bern, Geneva, Lausanne, etc., you will easily recognise a uniform pattern: They want to ban private transport, scare it away. I can think of an example from the city of Zurich that clearly illustrates cause and effect. I had to take my son to the Schulthess Clinic in Zurich. I practically had to cross the whole city to get there. From Baden to Zurich, on the motorway at a good 120 km/h, my on-board computer showed a fuel consumption of 6.3 l/100 km. This was over a distance of around 25 kilometres. Through the city of Zurich, with all its traffic calming measures (30 km/h zones, narrowing, one-way streets), the consumption then rose to a whopping 9.6 l/100 km over a distance of perhaps 8 kilometres. Environmental policy of the dirtiest kind! The only positive thing about this is that the residents who are in favour of and enable such interventions have to breathe in the air that they are so keen to protect.
