As of: February 11, 2024, 3:45 p.m
By: Tanja Brinkmann
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Traffic jam heading south: On Saturday, traffic in the district only flowed at walking pace.
© Andreas Mayr
A huge traffic avalanche rolled across the Garmisch-Partenkirchen district on Saturday.
The reason for this was not just the start of the holidays, but also the blockade campaign by climate activists on Fernpassstrasse and the blockade on Achenseestrasse.
Garmisch-Partenkirchen/Farchant/Oberau
– This Saturday, the people of Farchant and Oberau were reminded of the times before the tunnels.
In particular, residents living through town were severely affected by the massive volume of traffic heading south.
“A line of cars stretched through the town from morning to night,” says Lisa Krötz.
The deputy district farmer from Farchant quickly rejected the idea of traveling to Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
Things also progressed very slowly, at walking pace, in Oberau.
No wonder: “Block handling was necessary in the tunnel for around five hours, sometimes in both directions,” explains Police Commissioner David Schwinghammer.
Some particularly clever people wanted to avoid this by taking dirt roads.
But the police quickly put a stop to this.
The official speaks of “exceptionally high traffic,” which could not be explained by the start of the carnival holidays.
He and his colleagues only found out what was wrong in the evening.
The whole thing “was certainly reinforced by a blockade campaign by climate activists on the Fernpassstraße, as some travelers were certainly trying to avoid the traffic jam on the Austrian B179 this way”.
Block clearance on Achenseestrasse for the first time
In addition, drivers on the way to Achensee had to prepare for a kind of block handling for the first time on Saturday.
For this purpose, the Tyroleans had placed a traffic light on the Achenseestrasse B181 heading south.
The measure will also be tested next Saturday and on March 23rd and 30th.
This affects road users who want to cross Tegernsee or Lenggries towards Austria and want to avoid the motorway toll to the Zillertal.
They also probably switched to the roads in the district in order to get to Tyrol via Scharnitz.
“We noticed the block clearance immediately,” says Josef Bobinger, Second Mayor of Oberau and a resident of Werdenfelser Strasse.
After the experience of this Saturday, he asks himself, “What happens when the Fernpass toll comes?” This will increase the already huge volume of traffic in the district even further.
“We have to defend ourselves against this.”