I’ve mentioned before that there is a harebrained scheme in the offing to lay yet more tarmac on the fields by our village, and last week there was an information evening where a local traffic planner was giving us details of what they were going to do. I naturally felt I had to go: I’m a local resident with children, I had a duty to both of my readers to blog about it and besides, there may be food
Some background may be needed here. We live in a fairly small village just outside of Stuttgart which happens to be between an Autobahn to the south and a port and industrial centre to the North. There is a bypass to the east and west, but we still have a lot of traffic through the village (about 13500 cars and 1500 trucks every 24 hours). Almost everyone wants a bypass because they believe it will ‘finally’ solve the problem. Like the last one was supposed to. And the one before that. It never does because traffic expands and contracts to fill the available space. Naturally the Strassenbauamt (Road building ministry) are aware of this but keep quiet about it.
While almost everyone wants the bypass, no-one wants it going past their house, and I don’t blame them. So now there is a new scheme being proposed by Stuttgart. They are offering to build a nice new road under the village to connect to one of the existing bypasses. This will take the traffic well away from the village and the noise, and no-one will have their view spoiled.
This is marsh gas. Absolute, 100% unadulterated cobblers. Anyone capable of walking erect should smell a king-sized rat when Stuttgart offers to build something for Ostfildern. Why would a city offer to spend taxpayers money on an infrastructure project in another administrative district? The answer is geography. There’s a major intersection of north-south and east-west autobahns, to the South West of Stuttgart used by a lot of traffic, but also a lot of traffic from the North-west going to the South East. This traffic has to curve around three sides of Stuttgart and climb a major hill. For about 20 years the Strassenbauamt has been quietly working on a plan for a bypass to the east of Stuttgart avoiding the hill, and it’s a section of this road that will go under our village. In other words, the road isn’t a bypass for us, but for Stuttgart, under this village.
Unfortunately, they’ve done their spin well: the notion is fixed in people’s minds that we need a bypass.
The economy is now going fast down the toilet, and the transport industry is going with it. As the majority of the traffic is cars, and about half of that is internal traffic, we could reduce traffic in the village simply by making less parking spaces and more bike infrastructure, because traffic expands and contracts to fit the space available… but I’m being rational, and using science which isn’t going to get me anywhere in this debate.
Not that any of this matters, because despite the huff and puff, no-one has yet committed to the €20-30 billion that this white elephant will cost, so I suspect it’ll be a while before any diggers turn up, but rest assured the Strassenbauamt is out there somewhere, building pointless roads to link up their fantasy network…
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May 30, 2009 at 1:54 pm
anna
I’m not sure if I understand the situation correct, but similar projects are thought of in Austria. While our second biggest city (Graz) already has an tunneled bypass, other cities think about that too. I think in Graz it works well, the city itself is a lot quieter and more livable. But it’s not something that can and should be applied everywhere. And it’s very expensive too. They had the idea of bypassing Feldkirch (a bottleneck at the border to Switzerland) by a tunnel as well. That just costs a fortune and probably won’t help all that much. We have the additional problem of the so-called “Vignettenflüchtlige” who simply don’t want to buy a road tax disc and therefore drive trough the villages rather than using the motorway, especially tourists.
May 30, 2009 at 1:58 pm
John . Dublin Ireland
Hi .Be very cautious if the Stuttgart Burgermeisters are anything like our Government or Councils they will keep Chipping away until they get what they want. Even though it is put on the Backburner for Twenty Years ,the Important thing for them is getting Permission to go ahead.
Suddenly Years later they will come along and start Building the By Pass when everyones Opinion has changed and if everyone complains they will say you told us to go ahead Years ago it has all been sanctioned and passed into Law.
Over here in the Emerald Isle it is all Fuelled by Vested Interests, Big Landowners,Friends of Friends,Developers, and Brown Manilla Envelopes Stuffed with Money being Passed around in Secret Locations like Country Pubs and Hotel Foyers IE Bribery and Corruption.
May 31, 2009 at 5:00 am
Groover
It’s the same everywhere. Brisbane’s currently building two new tunnels, new toll bridges and four lane roads to combat the traffic congestions. Yeah right. As if more roads will solve the problems. As you say: More roads just create more cars and that’s not just cars but big SUVs if you live in Oz!
June 3, 2009 at 6:19 am
Andy in Germany
Hello Anna: Yes, I think in certain circumstances, it can help to get cars out of a city centre, as with Graz. Freiburg have done this and so have several towns in the Black Forest.
This though, is something different: it’s not a bypass to nake the village more livable, although it’s being sold as that: it’s part of a network to take traffic off a major Autobahn junction, that happens to go through (Under) this village. Although it’s being sold as a way to reduce noise, it’ll just make the situation worse.
@John: Fortunately we’re in a Federal system, which means more people to bribe. I doubt they are any more honest though.
@Groover: It’s the same everywhere you look, but too many vested interests trying to deny it. I think the tide is turning, albeit slowly.