The Upper Bavarian town of Burghausen has had to give up its one-way regulation on the old border bridge to Austria, which it had introduced unilaterally. The Munich Administrative Court overturned the regulation in its judgment on Tuesday with immediate effect. Cars from the Burghauser side have not been allowed to drive onto the narrow bridge since the beginning of last year, as the city had introduced a one-way regulation for the German part up to the border in the middle of the river and put up appropriate signs.
The Austrian side had always refused such a one-way regulation – among other things because there has been much more traffic on its narrow, around one and a half kilometer long shore road between the old and the new bridge since then and the residents protested violently. However, an entrepreneur from the neighboring Austrian municipality of Hochburg-Ach had complained, who has his office at the company headquarters in Burghauser Neustadt and, according to his own statements, has to take a detour of at least two and a half kilometers over the new border bridge for the evening way home. The same goes for around 2,000 cross-border commuters every day, mainly Austrians, who work in the large plants in the Bavarian chemical triangle.
The city, which has long wanted traffic calming in its historic old town, also argued in court with noise protection for residents, with traffic safety and, above all, with the safety of the many children who go to school around the town square. However, she has not been able to document any accidents or dangerous situations on the bridge in recent years.
So far, the one-way regulation has only been used on a trial basis, but the city has already extended it twice. The judges were particularly upset by this, for whom an indication of a lack of knowledge due to the reduced traffic in the corona pandemic was not enough. The attempt would have expired this Thursday at midnight anyway, according to the plans of Mayor Florian Schneider (SPD), the city council should introduce the regulation permanently in its next meeting on April 6th. According to the court’s declared view, the city will have to think this through carefully. Because the road traffic regulations serve road safety and not urban planning.
Schneider asked for advice on how the city should design a permanent arrangement, but the court did not see itself as responsible for this. For example, she could consider a one-way regulation only on weekdays during school hours and with an exception for the residents of Ach who are particularly affected. After the verdict, Schneider declared that he wanted to continue to look calmly for solutions for more security, noise protection and quality of life in the old town. At least in the short term there will be no long run for a one-way regulation.