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Radar trap in Cologne: higher fines for speeders
Photo: Christoph Hardt / imago images / Future Image
Anyone who drives too fast, hinders emergency services or stands in an electric car parking lot with a combustion engine model will have to pay significantly more this year.
The Federal Council decided that today.
A new regulation was passed in 2020.
Due to a formal error, however, it was collected again.
So now a new attempt.
The catalog of fines is intended to provide greater protection for pedestrians and cyclists.
However, it is more gracious to drivers than last year's draft.
SPIEGEL shows the most important changes.
Higher fines for speeders - a half-baked compromise?
Drivers have to pay significantly more if they are driving at excessive speed.
Anyone who drives 21 km / h too fast in urban areas will in future pay 115 euros instead of the previous 80 euros.
“We know that excessive speed is the most common cause of accidents.
The catalog of fines and road traffic regulations are ultimately traffic-educational measures for mutual consideration, "said Bremen's Senator for Mobility, Maike Schaefer (Greens), explaining the measures.
Schaefer is chair of the conference of transport ministers.
In contrast to the failed regulation from last year, the new catalog is designed with restraint.
According to the 2020 version, a driver who is driving 21 km / h too fast in urban areas would have had to surrender his driver's license for a month.
That caused a lot of uproar at the time.
The measure no longer applies.
For Michael Müller-Görnert, traffic expert at the Verkehrsclub Deutschland (VCD), the wrong step: "A little more safety for cyclists and pedestrians with comparatively minor consequences for the misconduct of motorists," he recognizes in the reform and calls it a "half-baked compromise «.
A driving ban is still only issued if the speed limit is exceeded by more than 31 km / h in urban areas and 41 km / h outside of urban areas.
The changes in the overview
Safer bike and footpaths
In the future, cyclists should be able to get from A to B more safely.
For this purpose, several points are included in the set of rules.
This makes unauthorized parking on sidewalks and bike paths more expensive.
Car drivers previously had to pay a maximum of 35 euros, and in future it will be up to 110 euros.
The same goes for stopping and parking in the second row.
Even drivers who illegally drive on sidewalks or bike paths will have to pay more in the future: the offense now costs 100 euros instead of 25 euros.
A completely new requirement for trucks is that they are only allowed to turn right in urban areas at walking pace.
Truck drivers who do not comply will in future pay a fine of 70 euros.
The German Bicycle Club ADFC is happy that cyclists should be better protected.
However, the measures are not enough for ADFC managing director Ann-Kathrin Schneider: "Higher fines to protect cyclists are important, but only one piece of the mosaic on the long way to cycling country."
VCD expert Müller-Görnert sees it similarly.
He has analyzed the election programs of the parties - and is optimistic about a possible traffic light coalition in the federal government that the situation for cyclists could improve in the future: "The FDP also wants to strengthen bicycles, the SPD and the Greens anyway," he says.
Those who endanger life pay more
Creating a rescue alley can save lives.
It ensures that rescue workers can get to the scene of the accident quickly.
But in the past, disabilities have become more and more common.
In 2018 alone, 2,400 motorists were brought to justice for not having formed an emergency corridor.
So anyone who blocks an operation in the future, uses the alley himself or even follows an ambulance, has to pay between 200 and 320 euros.
There is also a one-month driving ban.
Anyone who parks in front of officially marked fire service entrances or hampers emergency vehicles there will also have to pay more in the future: up to 100 euros.
Illegal parking becomes more expensive
Finding a free charging station is sometimes more difficult than expected for e-car drivers.
Especially when one of the Stromer places is blocked by a normal car.
To prevent this, a new set of facts is to be introduced.
Anyone who puts a combustion engine on an e-car parking lot will pay a fine of 55 euros in the future.
A fine of the same amount must also be paid if a parking space for a car sharing car is used without authorization.
The fines for unauthorized parking or stopping in front of bus stops have also been increased to 100 euros instead of 35 euros previously.
If you park unauthorized in a parking space for the disabled, you must expect a fine of 55 instead of the previous 35 euros.
Auto-posing will also be punished more and more in the future, costing 100 euros instead of 35 euros.
When does the new road traffic regulations apply?
It is not yet possible to say exactly.
The new catalog of fines will be published in the next Federal Law Gazette.
The next publication date has not yet been set.
The new road traffic regulations come into force three weeks later.
In all likelihood that will be this year.
Is there more to come?
For many, the new rules do not go far enough.
"The new catalog of fines can only be a first, small step in the reform of the road traffic regulations," says VCD expert Müller-Görnert.
In order for cities to be safer for all road users, more than "minor adjustments to an outdated traffic law" are needed, says ADFC Ms. Schneider.
"The new federal government must take climate protection and road safety really seriously - and create a new, modern road traffic law for this," she demands.
Müller-Görnert calls for a new Federal Mobility Act, which forms a valid legal framework for future-oriented mobility.
This should also include climate protection targets, for example.
Only the Greens had spoken out in their election manifesto in favor of the introduction of such a set of rules with which "a new basis for transport policy and legislation" should be created.
Experts estimate that they would be more likely to implement this in a traffic light coalition than in a Jamaica alliance.