Endless traffic jams, heavy traffic and people who can’t get from one side of the street to the other – the mayor and Horst Seehofer, then Prime Minister, agreed in 2017: Things can’t go on as before. The B 304 just before the Munich city limits must be defused and, if possible, relocated to a tunnel. The municipality on the B 304 is Karlsfeld and not Haar, which is on the same access road, just at the other end of the city. And even if the tunnel has so far remained a dream, you are further along in the north-east of Munich than in the east.
The conditions in Haar and Karlsfeld are not only similar in principle in terms of combat readiness. Both communities have around 20,000 inhabitants and are brutally divided by a traffic lane. More than 30,000 vehicles a day are counted in Haar, 40,000 in Karlsfeld, and the trend is increasing. The calls are getting louder here and there not to let the places go completely under the wheels. In Karlsfeld, in 2016, a stage win was actually achieved. The top speed has been reduced from 50 to 60 km/h. A traffic report had shown that motorists are slowed down only marginally because the traffic is so dense anyway.
In Haar, they were recently rebuffed with the same request, which the lower traffic authority in the district office justified with reference to the road traffic regulations, above all with the fact that 50 km/h would bring only minor advantages in terms of noise protection. The “intervention threshold” for traffic law measures is high, according to the letter from the district office in official German. These should only be issued where it is “absolutely necessary due to the special circumstances”.
The district office does not accept the comparison with Karlsfeld
The report by the municipality of Haar had shown that reducing the speed by ten kilometers per hour could reduce the noise level by 1.2 to 1.3 decibels (A). The traffic authority points out that human hearing can only detect a reduction from three decibels (A). So a stricter speed limit won’t do anything. It’s always a case-by-case decision. Situations in two communities – such as Haar or Karlsfeld – should not be equated.
In any case, Haar is bitter that the B 304 is wide and well developed there. When assessing the conditions, it also plays a role how close the residential development is to the lanes, which the authorities mention as one aspect of why the speed limit in Trudering is 50 km/h in Karlsfeld as well as in the Munich area. The street space narrows significantly there. There are up to seven lanes in Haar at certain intersections. Pedestrians and cyclists face a particularly difficult hurdle there.
The transition over the main road should be made easier for the visually impaired with beeper traffic lights.
(Photo: Imago)
Recent discussions between the municipality and the Freising State Building Authority have brought some movement to lowering this hurdle for the visually impaired. The Disability Advisory Board had pushed for traffic lights to be equipped with beepers. According to the advisory board, there is only one of the six traffic lights on the B 304, and the beeper there has been broken for months. The State Building Authority speaks of seven traffic lights, two of which are equipped with beepers. According to Mayor Andreas Bukowski (CSU), the crossings over the 304 should now be expanded “step by step” to make them accessible to the blind. Action must be taken, especially at the transition from Kirchenstrasse to Jagfeldring.
Other modifications are also planned, which, however, should primarily help to cope with the growing car traffic. The B 471 is to be given a right-hand lane at the junction with the B 304 in the north. According to Bukowski, the municipality wants to take into account the increase in residents in the Art Nouveau Park and the traffic from the new commercial area in the Grasbrunn district of Keferloh. Planning would be completed in the first quarter of 2022. The traffic light circuit is readjusted.
How a traffic light is switched is a hotly debated question in Haar and Karlsfeld. Again and again seniors or other pedestrians with limited mobility are stranded on central islands. As has often happened in Haar, Karlsfeld’s traffic officer Bernd Wanka (CSU) also calls for green phases to be geared towards pedestrians and cyclists, and in this regard he describes the state building authority as a “tough negotiating partner”. But he does not want to give up and argues with numerous accidents at the intersections. Haar doesn’t have them to this extent. The traffic authority in the district office emphasizes that the B 304 is a well-functioning road there with numerous turning lanes.
The traffic authority in the district office emphasizes that in Haar 2017 a green wave was programmed for the flowing traffic with great effort and at high cost, which, according to the report, brought about a reduction in noise by three decibels. Silent asphalt, which Mayor Bukowski said is planned for 2025 in the road construction program, could bring another five decibels. According to the state building authority, the noise-reducing coating is to be applied to the B304 in Haar when the intersection of the B 304 and B 471 is being rebuilt.
Some people in Haar are now questioning the layout of the street itself in order to create more space for cyclists and public transport. Mayor Bukowski continues to follow the plan for a cycle path on stilts put forward by him and his fellow mayor in Vaterstetten on Haar’s main artery. The Greens would prefer to see a tram running on the B 304 and push back private transport in favor of local public transport.