A majority of the city council in Penzberg surprisingly decided to remove all road bottlenecks on Bichler Strasse and on “Wölfl”.
The test run for traffic calming on the two routes ends prematurely.
City council members had reported complaints.
Penzberg - The debate on traffic calming on Bichler Strasse and in Wölfl was a bit confusing in places on Wednesday evening.
Actually, the city council should aim to continue the test run that began in spring and to permanently install the curbs for the bottlenecks after winter.
At the same time, there was a request from the Greens parliamentary group to dissolve the bottlenecks at least on Bichler Strasse and to mark bicycle protection lanes.
Whereby Kerstin Engel (Greens) emphasized that for her "deconstruction to zero" without an alternative would not be an option.
Narrowing of the lane: “Dismantling to zero” on Bichler Strasse and Wölfl
However, a “reduction to zero” is the temporary consequence of the decision on Wednesday.
A clear majority voted for the dismantling of the "soft measures", ie the narrowing of the lanes, on Bichler Strasse and "Wölfl".
Against this were only Engel, Katharina von Platen (both Greens), Jack Eberl, Ferdinand Disl (both FLP) and Regina Bartusch (SPD).
At the same time, the city council voted for cycle lanes - at the request of Markus Bocksberger (PM) both on Bichler Strasse and on “Wölfl”.
However, the decision was about examining the proposal first.
Bicycle lanes on both streets: proposal is being considered
The head of the public order office, Peter Holzmann, looked visibly surprised from the end of the bottleneck on Wednesday evening.
At the meeting he had asked to leave it at least for the winter and to include the cycle lanes in an overall concept, but unsuccessfully.
When asked, he said on Thursday that the warning beacons and curbs would be dismantled next week.
The planned pedestrian traffic light on Bichler Strasse at Gustavstrasse is an exception.
Civil engineering work is already in progress there.
The plan to close the gap in the sidewalk on the “Wölfl” street (from the confluence with Birkenstraße in the direction of Nonnenwaldstraße) will also be retained - the city council voted unanimously for this on Wednesday.
This section of sidewalk is to be built next year.
Mayor Korpan reports complaints
Mayor Stefan Korpan had stated in the city council discussion that he had heard many opinions about the "soft measures": "For the residents it is positive, for many others it is disadvantageous and annoying".
He was not a fan himself, said Korpan, who initially wanted to postpone the item on the agenda.
Everyone complains about it, said Christine Geiger (CSU), who would like a lane against it.
John-Christian Eilert (Greens) spoke of a dangerous situation for cyclists due to the bottlenecks and of more noise due to “stop and go”.
He advocated replacing the bottlenecks with cycle lanes.
Unlike his colleague in the parliamentary group, Engel, he wanted to see the bottlenecks removed in any case.
Bichler Strasse and Wölfl: Warning of dismantling without alternative
Jack Eberl (FLP) warned against dismantling without an alternative, recalling the previous history.
For many years, residents, especially in Wölfl, fought for 30 km / h.
When the city council said no with a narrow majority in March 2019, it also offered a compromise: "soft measures" to calm traffic.
Residents and the public order office then worked out a concept that started as a test run in spring.
"Sure, there is a certain disruption for through traffic," said Eberl.
"But now we're about to finally implement it - and throw everything overboard."
In the end, everyone was in favor of testing the cycle lane idea.
However, Holzmann, the head of the public order department, warned that the implementation was not that easy.
If there is a double-sided strip, the parking spaces on Bichler Straße must be omitted.
According to him, the lane width is too small for a one-sided strip.
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