Bremen: Transport Senator appeals and saves 50,000 sidewalk parkers from traffic jams

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Parked vehicles on the sidewalk

Photo: Henning Angerer / IMAGO

There is a fight in Bremen.

It's about the question of whether cars - as has been common in some neighborhoods for years - may be parked on the sidewalk.

On the other hand, five Bremen residents had filed a lawsuit.

They demanded that the traffic authorities take action against the cars parked on both sides of the street.

And the administrative court in Bremen ruled: the citizens have a right to make this demand.

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Because, as the court argued, Section 12 of the Road Traffic Act resulted in a general ban on sidewalk parking, which not only served the public interest, but also the interests of the residents who were specifically affected.

In the streets where the plaintiffs lived, parking was not only done occasionally, but permanently on the sidewalks, in violation of the traffic regulations.

Therefore, the residents are entitled to demand intervention from the road traffic authority.

The court allowed an appeal and the competent transport senator then appealed on Monday.

This is probably due to the number of cars affected: around 50,000 cars.

"Just getting rid of parked cars won't get us anywhere"

A statement from the Senate said: The verdict is important for the entire city.

»If the Higher Administrative Court comes to the same conclusion, this will of course have an even greater impact on Bremen.

In addition, there would be a broadcast for the whole of Germany, which is of great importance for the traffic turnaround, for accessibility and also for rescue safety," said Mobility Senator Maike Schaefer.

"At the same time, we are convinced that the administrative court gave too little importance to the joint plan of action for 'parking in districts'."

You can see and understand that many residents suffer from the fact that the sidewalks are often no longer usable.

However: "Just getting rid of parked cars doesn't get us anywhere," said Interior Senator Ulrich Mäurer.

"The vehicles don't just disappear into thin air." He therefore considers the decision of the administrative court "to be completely unrealistic".

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The judgment of the administrative court was already made in November 2021, the detailed reasoning for the judgment has been available since February 22nd.

According to the judges, the road traffic authority cannot instruct the plaintiffs to contact the regulatory authorities.

In the affected residential streets, the regulatory authorities would usually not intervene at all.

The road traffic authority had argued that it had no room for maneuver if the competent authorities decided against intervening.

Cars are getting wider

Observers saw the court's decision as a novelty: Whether residents have a right to action being taken against parking on the sidewalk has not been discussed in case law, said the spokesman for the administrative court, according to a report by "taz".

According to a report in the newspaper »Weser-Kurier«, every fifth car on the streets of Bremen is parked on the sidewalk.

The court denied the motorists concerned the possibility of invoking a “customary right”.

A detail that could play a role in the question of common law: While urban sidewalks have not changed in width for decades, the design of cars is already changing - according to a report by the ADAC, 70 percent of all newly registered vehicles are wider than two meters today.

While a car in the compact class was 1.59 meters wide on average in 1978, a vehicle in the same class today measures 1.78 meters – plus exterior mirrors.

The impression of some residents that the space on the sidewalk is decreasing has a factual basis.

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