The chocolate elephant resides in a children’s book, where it begs zoo visitors for sweets. But no matter how much chocolate you bring in, the elephant always knows how to say the same sentence: “Far too little!” It often sounds a bit like a chocolate elephant when debates about parking spaces in municipal bodies, as is now the case in Ebersberg. No matter how many there are – and according to the city’s statutes, the district clinic even has more than necessary – some people say: “Far too little.” Which, if you look at the situation around the clinic, is also true at some times of the day. Where the additionally required parking spaces can be created, however, is just as unclear as the answer to the question of whether there can never be far too little supply.
In particular, you rarely get to the hospital on foot and without outside help, or do not leave it that way – it’s not called a healthy home. In fact, going to the clinic is one of the few things you don’t necessarily want to do with a cargo bike. A certain number of parking spaces in the vicinity of a hospital therefore certainly makes sense. And with the further growth of the clinic, the demand will continue to increase in the coming years; new offers such as the supply center will also create further demand for parking spaces. So where do you put it? In huge underground garages, as demanded by quite a few in Ebersberg? That would be a possibility – albeit a rather expensive one. The fact that the city demands this from the clinic, for example in the case of the planned staff housing on Münchner Strasse, is just as understandable as the clinic’s refusal to do so. By the way, an underground car park and parking deck program decided by the city council years ago has silted up without a hitch, with a bit of luck you will get a handful of additional parking spaces when the Sankt Benedikt kindergarten is finished at some point.
So if the clinic’s needs are not significantly reduced and the construction of new parking spaces cannot be increased indefinitely, the relief must come elsewhere. If parking traffic were to decrease overall, the parking pressure exerted by the clinic on the surrounding area would also be significantly lower.
By the way, the elephant itself turns into chocolate in the end. Analogous to this: One of the more important tasks of future urban planning is how to prevent, or often turn back, that inner cities become completely just because there are not enough parking spaces. In this respect, the anger at the clinic is not a problem in itself, but only a symptom of a much larger one.