As of: January 30, 2024, 7:00 p.m
By: Andrea Beschorner
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Cars in the pedestrian zone are not uncommon in Freising six weeks after the new traffic routing came into force.
The city boss asks for patience.
© Beschorner
Freising finally has a pedestrian zone – at least in theory.
The area between Schiedereck and Amtgerichtsgasse is not yet truly car-free.
The optics are also to blame.
Freising
– Things aren’t going well with Freising’s new pedestrian zone.
There are still many cars in the city center between Schiedereck (intersection with Bahnhofsstrasse) and District Court Lane, and there is still a lot of traffic.
Green city councilor Charlotte Reitsam raised the issue under inquiries at the most recent finance committee meeting.
“We urgently need to do more public relations work.
Many people simply don’t realize that this is a pedestrian zone.”
Nothing to change in the short term
In fact, Freising's police chief Andreas Wegmaier also sees this as part of the problem.
The area from the junction to District Court Lane in the direction of Marienplatz cannot be clearly identified as a pedestrian zone, at least visually: a wide lane in the middle, with footpaths to the left and right of it.
But this situation will not change in the short term; on the one hand, because of the Korbinian anniversary, the city has decided to put the inner city renovation on hold in 2024.
On the other hand, due to the precarious budget situation, there is currently no money in the coffers for the measure - level expansion, new pavement.
Freising Mayor Tobias Eschenbacher asked for patience at the meeting: “We set up the pedestrian zone six weeks ago.
People need a little time to get used to it.” The situation is “not yet perfect, but in my opinion it is gradually getting better,” said Eschenbacher.
And because some people simply don't notice that it is a pedestrian zone, despite clear signs at the entrances, Active City has already thought about what measures could be taken to further improve the situation.
According to the mayor, mobile trees and street furniture such as benches are being discussed.
Confusing optics
The final wisdom has not yet been found.
Although, according to PI department head Andreas Wegmaier, there is a solution, as he has already emphasized several times: a continuous pedestrian zone from the Karlwirtskreuzung to Heilig-Geist-Gasse.
The road traffic regulations and their administrative regulations would provide for the regulation of a pedestrian zone in the case of such a level expansion, as has already been implemented in Obere and parts of Untere Straße, as Wegmaier recently emphasized in an FT interview.
An expansion at the same level as between Heilig-Geist-Gasse and District Court Lane is not planned for traffic-calmed areas.
“The current design of the traffic-calmed area does not comply with the legal requirements,” says the PI boss.
There would have to be a separation between the road and the footpath; a minimal difference in height between the two areas would be sufficient.
In fact, in the area designated as a pedestrian zone between Amtgerichtsgasse and Marienplatz, there are currently structural conditions that correspond to a traffic-calmed area - and in the traffic-calmed area, structural conditions prevail as in a pedestrian zone.
“A temporary problem,” says Wegmaier.
In other words: A problem that will exist until either the entire city center becomes a pedestrian zone or at least the same level expansion is realized in the area between Marienplatz and District Court Lane.
Charlotte Reitsam: “People are angry”
Finally, Charlotte Reitsam reported that she had been closely monitoring the situation over the past few weeks.
Conclusion: “People are angry that there is still so much traffic.” Eschenbacher, however, explained that the municipal traffic monitoring was increasingly on site.
When asked by the FT, Andreas Wegmaier also said that the police were always deployed to punish violations.