Wesner Tor: "We often hear car drivers scold"

Created: 06/18/2022, 09:00

By: Michaele Heske

Eye of a needle at Wesner Tor: When a large car drives through, it gets cramped for pedestrians on the narrow sidewalk.

Especially at rush hour, cars are backed up in both directions.

© Michaele Heske

The diversion through the Wesner Tor since the B15 was blocked has heated tempers in Dorfen.

The eye of the needle is also not without danger for pedestrians.

Dorfen – Since the B 15 was closed and the construction work on the Isen Bridge in Dorfen was completed, traffic has been diverted through the Wesner Tor.

At the bottleneck, cars are backed up in both directions.

But the narrow passage to the city center is also a daily test for pedestrians.

The office of insurance broker Josef Jung is located directly at Wesner Tor.

"We often hear the car drivers scolding," says Dorfener.

An observation made by many passers-by.

Sometimes a motorcyclist has the right of way, then a red BMW tries to squeeze through the gate, even though a cyclist is coming towards him on the way out of town.

There are more and more foul words.

If the car window is then rolled down, there is a crack here and there – at least verbally.

"I've gotten used to the traffic now," says Jung.

If he doesn't have client appointments, he rides his bike to work.

"Otherwise we'll have to see how we can get on." The walk into the city center is particularly explosive.

Because wide vehicles, such as SUVs or vans, often touch the curb when driving through, pushing passers-by against the wall, so to speak.

"I always wait until there are no more cars in the passage," says Jung, who also sits on the city council.

For Elisabeth-Maria Windeck, too, the walk to the city center is a nail-biter.

With the baby in the buggy and her little boy by the hand, she doesn't feel safe, says the villager.

"Kawumm - many cars just jet past, don't pay any attention to us," complains the mother.

"You can also walk across the Herzoggraben," says Evelyn Gauster.

Like her sister Christine, she gladly accepts the detour.

For safety, because her pug Pippo is also startled when tires squeak.

“The situation at Wesner Tor is nothing new.

There has always been a lot of traffic here,” adds Christine Gauster.

A passage through the former Schmederer department store would be a permanent solution that the city hopes for.

Property developer Georg Scharl is currently building there.

However, a building permit for a pedestrian passage has not yet been issued.

"We have given a lot of thought to how we can equalize the traffic here," says Police Chief Inspector Karlheinz Lauffer - also about a traffic light.

"But a traffic light system makes no sense here," he recently explained (we reported).

There have been no accidents at Wesner Tor so far, according to Dorfen's chief of police, Harald Kratzel.

Only one truck driver did not calculate the height of his truck correctly and slightly scratched the archway.

Incidentally, the truck was allowed to drive through the city, according to Kratzel, because the shops still have to be supplied with goods.

Lauffer is not surprised that motorists are starting to get heated at Wesner Tor.

But all the whining and scolding is useless: "We'll have to get through this for the next six months." His tip: leave the car behind and switch to a bicycle.

This would also equalize the traffic junction.

Leif Brönnle regularly does his errands by bike anyway.

The 26-year-old explains the increasing ruthlessness at Wesner Tor as follows: “The situation is new for the people of Dorfen, because we have rarely had any real traffic jams.

If you live in a big city, you know the rush-hour traffic and are used to the stop-and-go traffic.”