Unterammergau no longer wants to tolerate the precarious parking situation in the village and is declaring war on long-term parkers.
Many parking spaces in the local area will soon have a time limit.
Unterammergau
- Unterammergau has so far been a paradise for motorists.
No parking fee is charged anywhere in town.
How long someone stays in a parking space with his car was also irrelevant.
However, after the corona summer 2020 and spring 2021 caused countless day-trippers, the municipality now has to give in.
The parking behavior has degenerated.
In some cases, cars blocked the streets in the town center to such an extent that the fire brigade with their large fire engines could no longer pass in an emergency.
Now the local council took on the tiresome topic, debating for hours how the parking situation in town could improve.
It's not just day-trippers who are to blame for the parking situation - locals also contribute
Because it's not just summer visitors with their cars to blame for the situation - the locals also contribute to the chaos. “We have a lot of long-term parkers in town,” says Mayor Robert Stumpfecker. He and the local parliamentarians are particularly keen on homeowners who park their vehicles on the street instead of on their own property. As a result, free spaces are becoming scarce for non-residents, who in turn have to stand somewhere else. “Actually there would be enough parking space in town” - if everyone were to use their own.
Therefore, his administration first put a radical solution up for debate in the last meeting, variant 1: a restricted stopping ban for the entire local area.
All areas outside of designated parking spaces would be taboo with immediate effect.
But this plan was rejected almost unanimously.
In the end, only very few wanted to go that far.
Stumpfecker would have loved to have a restricted parking ban in the inner local area
Variant 2 is the one that Stumpfecker would have preferred to be: A restricted parking ban, at least for the inner city area. “A middle solution,” says the town hall boss. However, some of the town council members saw the problem here that the stationary traffic would move to other streets and cause cramped conditions there. "We should rather intervene selectively where there are safety problems," says Anton Speer Junior (FUZ). He considers a no-parking zone to be “not expedient”, as all residents would be punished. But even Michael Spindler (CSU) sees “no other solution”. However, the middle ground with 4: 9 was also rejected.
So it went into the fine-tuning. The committee carefully scrutinized every street and every single parking space. After an hour and a half of discussion, it was clear that no stopping zones would be pronounced only very selectively. For example, in confusing areas or intersections such as near the Gasthof Stern. The designated parking spaces there are now also limited to a maximum parking time of three hours between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. “That should easily be enough for lunch,” says Stumpfecker. The same applies to the parking spaces at the church square or at the school. The signs are expected to be put up in August.
At the sports field, the committee agreed on a different solution.
Since the parking spaces are often occupied by hikers with their cars and therefore there have been several problems on match days and during the training of the WSV Unterammergau, access to the sports field is now completely blocked.
Only those authorized to drive, such as football players, officials and farmers, are allowed to turn off Bundesstraße 23 to the sports field.
In the outdoor area, the fees have been increased (see info box).
In addition, the representatives decided to expand two parking spaces for hikers.
On sunny weekends nothing is free there even early in the morning.
That is why the Kappel car park is being expanded with parking spaces on the “Engen Laine (Hoad)”.
The one on Weiherfeld will also be larger by an area leased by the municipality.
