Allgäu - Anyone who is out and about in the Allgäu mountains this year will often experience a nasty surprise in the parking lot: Some municipalities have increased their parking fees, in some cases drastically. In Hinterstein im Oberallgäu, for example, ten euros are now due for a day ticket. For hobby mountaineer Christine Gleich, a limit has been reached. The woman from Kempten has started an online petition for a local parking ticket on hikers' parking lots. And apparently hit a nerve with it. Within just one week, over 5000 people (as of Monday morning) signed the letter.
The Corona year 2020 with its lockdowns and closed borders has awakened a love for the mountains in many.
Instead of spending the weekend in the next largest city, Baden-Württemberg and Upper Bavaria were drawn to the Alps.
The parking lots for hikers in the Allgäu were therefore often hopelessly overcrowded.
The result: the prices for parking have increased dramatically in some cases - to the annoyance of many locals.
If you want to quickly go on a mountain tour after your work, you may have to spend significantly more on the parking ticket than in previous years.
Since 2021, hikers at the Pfrontener Breitenbergbahn have been paying five euros for parking for two hours or more.
We're not saying that it doesn't have to cost anything.
It just has to be in proportion.
Christine Equal
At the Alpspitzbahn car park in Nesselwang, three euros are now due.
Until 2020, outdoor fans could park their cars here free of charge.
Nature enthusiasts in Hohenschwangau have to dig much deeper into their pockets: Here they now have to spend eight euros for a parking time of six hours, each additional hour costs extra.
The tariffs in neighboring Oberallgäu are even more expensive.
If you park your car at the Bruck sawmill shortly before Hinterstein, you currently pay seven euros for four hours or more.
Hikers have to throw a total of ten euros into the machine in the “Auf der Höh” parking lot for a day ticket.
About three years ago the price was 2.50 euros, complains Christine Gleich.
Better graduation
You can understand that residents are annoyed when hikers park their properties. “But increasing the parking fee to ten euros does not prevent so many tourists from coming,” she is convinced. The juicy surcharge only caused displeasure among local mountaineers. And they would now think twice about whether they would have a beer at the next hut or would rather go home straight away. Because there is also a lack of reasonable time intervals, hikers often have no choice but to buy a day ticket if they want to climb to the next summit, the Kempten woman criticizes.
In some parking lots in the Allgäu there is even a threat of a complaint if you park your car there before 6 a.m., for example.
Mountaineers should start early for extended tours - if only for safety reasons, emphasizes the Kemptener.
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Christine Gleich from Kempten is the initiator of the petition “Locals parking ticket for hikers' parking spaces”.
© private
Switching to the bus is usually not an alternative, as it generally leaves much too late in the morning and starts the return journey too early in the evening.
So mostly only the car remains for the journey.
"For mountaineers, who go to the mountains very often, it simply adds up to utopian", is Gleich's conclusion.
“And then imagine that you are in your well-deserved retirement and would like to spend your retirement years hiking in your home country.
You simply can no longer afford that. "
In contrast, for tourists who receive guest cards such as the “Bad Hindelang Plus Card” or the Allgäu-Walser Card through their overnight stay on site, parking is reduced or even completely free.
“It can't be,” says angry Gleich.
"The locals should not be disadvantaged compared to tourists."
That is why the passionate mountaineer started an online petition, with which she campaigns for a local parking ticket on hiking parking lots in the Allgäu.
She is supported in this by other athletes, Allgäu photographers and bloggers, who all say they are having increasing difficulties in pursuing their leisure time and sometimes also doing their work.
The photographer Benjamin Zapf from Ofterschwang wrote a corresponding open letter parallel to the petition.
“We're not saying that it doesn't have to cost anything,” explains Gleich. After all, the parking spaces also have to be maintained.
"It just has to be in proportion."
Allgäu-wide annual ticket
As a solution, you have an Allgäu-wide annual ticket in mind.
In accordance with the principle of equality, this should not only be available to locals, but to anyone who wants to buy it.
If you buy it, you should be able to park your car in the hiking parking lots in the region as often and for as long as you want.
“That should be feasible,” says the young woman.
The Kempten woman and her colleagues are primarily concerned with entering into a discussion with everyone involved.
"You can find a solution there, I am convinced of that."
Interested participants can find the petition by Gleich and their fellow campaigners online on www.change.org under the search term “Locals parking ticket”.
