A lot of rejection and a lot of approval: After Audi boss Markus Duesmann’s push for car-free days, a heated debate broke out in politics and among associations. In view of the Ukraine war and the resulting economic crisis, the top manager said: “We have to rethink, realize that our lives are changing.” A speed limit could be a helpful symbol, Duesmann explained in the SZ interview, but he sees even more effective ones: “In order for us in Germany to better attune to the situation and the need to save, there could be car-free days again, like in the 1970s -years.”
Stefan Gelbhaar, transport policy spokesman for the Greens in the Bundestag, thinks it is right that, given the difficult energy and climate policy situation, discussions are now taking place “without blinkers”: Speed limits and car-free Sundays are “tested measures” that are “a small step for motorists”. would be, but “a big leap for energy savings”.
The SPD transport politician Isabel Cademartori considers it “a good sign” that this debate is now being conducted “so openly” at manufacturers such as Audi. However, she is critical of the specific measure: Car-free days are “symbolic politics that do not help us to save energy in the acute energy crisis,” believes the member of the Bundestag. While they may have increased awareness of alternative modes of transport, they have not resulted in the savings that are needed. More important is the expansion of renewables, the nationwide local transport ticket and the transformation in the automotive industry.
Audi boss Markus Duesmann
(Photo: Federico Basile/IMAGO/IPA)
Eco-lobbyist Jürgen Resch from Deutsche Umwelthilfe sees the savings effect quite differently: Duesmann’s idea is in line with the majority opinion, after all six out of ten Germans would like a speed limit. In April, the YouGov Institute collected the corresponding figures. Even with a speed limit that is the gentler of the two proposals, ten million liters of diesel and petrol could be saved every day, says Resch, as long as the speed on the freeway is reduced to 100 km/h and in town to 30 km/h. Energy and climate minister Habeck must now enforce a speed limit “to the Porsche lobby party FDP”.
The FDP is “amazed”
There, at the FDP, the transport policy spokesman in the Bundestag, Bernd Reuther, is “astonished” at the Audi boss’s initiative. There is a logistical problem in the country, which would be exacerbated by driving bans and people in rural areas would also get into trouble. According to Reuther, “the auto industry should do its homework.”
Former Federal Minister of Transport Andi Scheuer (CSU), on the other hand, considers Duesmann’s idea a “recipe from the 1970s” that is only being warmed up again: “It would be better if we heard about exciting innovations or about shorter delivery times for clean new cars German manufacturer.” Scheuer is then close to the automobile association VDA, whose president Hildegard Müller explains: “We reject driving bans as a reaction to rising energy prices, as in the 1970s.” It is important to encourage drivers to take personal responsibility instead of “scaring them off with bans and instructions”. The VDA sounds very absolute in its statement, which is surprising: As one of the most important manufacturers, Audi is part of the “we”.
Finally, the motorists’ lobby, the ADAC, considers a driving ban to be of little help. However, they do not want to take part in the political discussion about the introduction of a speed limit: the opinion on this is said to be too divided, even among their own members.