The district committee (BA) Schwabing-Freimann calls for the construction of a bicycle garage at the Münchner Freiheit. Free Greens and CSU had applied for a video-monitored parking facility open around the clock, which is close to public transport and should be free of charge for long-term parkers. “The bicycle spaces at the Münchner Freiheit are not enough,” said Jürgen Howe (Free Greens).
According to Howe’s calculations, 800 bicycles could be accommodated in the subway station’s locked floor, where shops and shopping facilities are now located. “I think it’s feasible to use these storefronts for that. It needs to be checked whether you can get out of these contracts in a timely manner,” Howe explained his plans. The application was accepted by a majority, now the city has to decide on the construction.
For Dorothea Wiepcke (CSU), this would only be a first step. “In a second step, we have to talk about the design of the square in Munich,” said Wiepcke. The bike garage and future plans for one of the most well-known squares in the city area “must be well balanced and take into account the design conditions on site”. The desire for change is not new. For years, the district committee has been calling for the double-lane Ungererstraße, which leads to the Münchner Freiheit, to be cut off and reduced in order to gain space. “There’s not a lot of space there,” said Wiepcke.
The planned tram north tangent could increase the pressure on the traffic junction
There was opposition to the application, especially from the sister faction of the Free Greens, which has only two members. There have only been two factions in the BA for a few months, which formally make separate politics under the banner of the Greens. Ekkehard Pascoe (Greens), chairman of the subcommittee on mobility, considered the proposal in the plenum to be a “nonsense motion”https://www.sueddeutsche.de/muenchen/.”It’s just completely unrealistic,” explained Pascoe when asked. “The Munich transport company never dares to build an expensive parking garage where relatively few bicycles can be accommodated.” Group spokesman Klaus Nürnberger (Greens) also had “concerns about feasibility”. For him, what is needed is an overall concept.
“I think it’s the pain of separation that played a role here,” Howe explained the reaction of his party comrades. Nürnberger replied that his parliamentary group had voted in favor of the application. Pascoe commented on the allegation of the pain of separation: “It’s nonsense, I’m convinced that we only do things that really work.”
Not least due to upcoming large-scale infrastructural projects, the traffic situation at the Münchner Freiheit has once again become the focus of local politics. The planned tram north tangent could increase the pressure on the traffic junction as well as the cycle expressway to the north of Munich. “Change is planned at the Münchner Freiheit,” Wiepcke said with conviction. For her colleague Howe, despite the objections, the site is “an ideal area to build a bicycle parking garage”.