After protests from residents: Park compromise on Heideweg

Created: 05/05/2022Updated: 05/05/2022, 09:50

By: Stefanie Zipfer

Things are going much more smoothly for buses since there are one-sided parking bans on Heideweg.

However, residents complained about the lack of parking spaces.

Now a solution has been found that should satisfy all sides.

© Norbert Habschied

In February, the city council had decided on a ban on stopping in some streets in Dachau-Süd.

There was protest on Heideweg.

City councilors responded with a compromise.

Dachau – In recent years, the city has spared no expense or effort to promote its bus service.

New buses were purchased, new drivers were hired, the frequency improved and – where necessary – roads were reconstructed so that the buses could pass each other without any problems.  

Another measure to make bus traffic flow more smoothly was the partial stopping ban on some streets in Dachau-Süd, which was decided in February.

In the Hermann-Stockmann-Strasse or on Heideweg, so the argument goes, it is sometimes narrow because of the cars parked on the right and left;

the bus drivers had to stop again and again and wait for oncoming traffic to get their huge vehicle safely through the residential streets.

 It has absolutely nothing to do with climate change if you park your car 7.30 meters away in the garage instead of on the street!

August Haas (CSU)

In order to equalize traffic, for example, a total of 35 parking spaces were removed on Heideweg in the area between Am Rehsteig and Moosstraße by introducing staggered parking bans.

However, the administration had already pointed out in February that this decision would mean that "an evasion into side streets" would be likely and this could lead to "sometimes significant problems".

And indeed, the residents on Heideweg are dissatisfied with the regulation.

They complained that they could no longer find parking spaces in their neighborhood.

A corresponding list of signatures including the demand to have this "nonsensical parking ban lifted" was signed by 55 residents.

The recipient of the list, Mayor Florian Hartmann, presented the concerns of the citizens to the city councilors in the environment and transport committee on Tuesday.

The city has implemented the committee's decision from February, now there are these signatures.

The Mayor therefore asked: "Do we want a change?"

“We have always been against the parking ban”

The representatives of the CSU said “yes” unequivocally.

Spokesman Peter Strauch explained: “We have always been against the stopping ban.

We’re solving a problem that we don’t have at all.” In fact, the city administration and public utilities, which operate the bus service in Dachau, had to admit when Strauch asked: Hermann-Stockmann-Strasse and Heideweg are not a black spot, nor are they ever Buses traveling through this area have been delayed.

Strauch concluded that driving a car must be “characterized by mutual consideration”, then traffic will flow even without parking restrictions.

Thomas Kress (Greens) argued in the other direction.

It is "interesting" with how naturally the residents claim to be allowed to park their cars on public land.

According to Kreß, the residents all have parking spaces or garages.

Now withdrawing the stopping bans is “a step in the wrong direction with regard to climate change and the turnaround in traffic”.

Michael Eisenmann (Bündnis für Dachau) also noted that it was also the CSU that called for smooth bus services during the election campaign.

He finds this about-face “funny.

That has to come from within you."

Compromise on the Heideweg

August Haas (CSU) only shook his head in the face of these arguments: It has absolutely nothing to do with climate change "if you park your car 7.30 meters away in the garage instead of on the street".

He summarized: In this area there are no bus delays, no black spots, and the argument about environmental protection is "a cramp anyway".

Addressing his colleague Kreß, Peter Gampenrieder (ÜB) objected that not all residents actually had a garage.

Some of the houses there date from the 1930s, while other properties have been heavily re-densified.

"This is a grown settlement that has undergone many changes over the years."

Traffic officer proposes a compromise

In the end, the committee then agreed against the four votes of the CSU on the compromise proposal by traffic officer Volker C. Koch (SPD): Accordingly, the parking bans will not be withdrawn in full, but in part.

Residents are now to be given back 15 parking spaces.

According to Koch, he actually “heard everything” during his three on-site appointments.

Some of the interlocutors spoke out in favor of maintaining the ban on stopping, while others vehemently rejected it.

The bus drivers reported “much safer and more relaxed driving than before” thanks to the mutual stopping restrictions.

According to Koch, the compromise now makes everyone at least a little happy: "We have reduced the parking bans a little and at the same time we have coordinated regulations with the transport companies." The CSU, on the other hand, only spoke of a "so-called compromise", which it only needs anyway, "because a majority in anticipatory obedience decided something that we don't need at all".

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