Harald Zipfel becomes dramatic: “If we don’t make it now, the region will be lost. It will choke on traffic.” The SPD mayor from Neuried speaks in the Planegger Kupferhaus not only as an experienced local politician, but above all as chairman of the association “Regionalmanagement München Südwest” – an intermunicipal consortium of municipalities and regional authorities in the southern and western parts of the Munich metropolitan region. These include cities such as Munich, Germering, Starnberg and the entire Würmtal. The strengths of the south-west region are to be bundled with the focus on the issues of settlement development, mobility and open space.
So far, representatives of the association, which is funded by the Free State, have met twice for regional conferences, a planned public event destroyed Corona. Last week, the Planegger Kupferhaus was only supposed to focus on one topic: mobility. More than 70 mayors, councilors and association representatives came. Verena Trautmann from the regional management formulated the first goals in her welcome: An even better networking of the communities with one another and the creation of conditions for the International Building Exhibition planned in Munich in 2031, from which the communities are hoping for a lot. By then, the regional management will have done preparatory work and formulated goals. The Planegger Evening is intended to show where the municipalities are particularly troubled. In various working groups, focal points from the respective communities are identified: missing cycle paths, dangerous crossings, destruction of the landscape by gravel mining and the associated heavy traffic, expansion of e-pillars, improvement of networking, less bureaucracy, and less “small and small”, such as a participant from the Würmtal puts it. There is a lack of imagination and, above all, of visions, says Harald Zipfel. As an example, he cites the debates about cable cars at traffic hotspots: “In my opinion, a cable car is an opportunity. It can transport more people than an underground train.” Zipfel calls it “a wasted opportunity” that the suburban railway favored by the former mayor of Neuried, Otto Götz, is apparently no longer an option. Deputy District Administrator Annette Gansmüller-Maluche (SPD) complains about the extremely long approval process for important projects and mentions the extension of underground line 6 from the Großhadern Clinic to the Martinsried campus: “It was discussed for 25 years.”
The visitors and experts at this regional conference are less concerned with the really big drafts, but rather with the visions of the future, which are relatively easy to implement and which are sure to receive broad approval from the population. As a result, a lot of this evening revolves around bicycles, cycle lanes and expressways, cargo bikes and the question of how cycling can be made even more attractive and, above all, safer – a topic that has preoccupied local councils for decades.
The Planegger CSU councilor Michael Book (CSU) therefore thinks that they have focused too much on bicycles, but that they cannot be used everywhere. Second Mayor Judith Grimme of the Greens also gives a mixed balance of the evening, which she calls “very theoretical”: “Lots of good words, but they don’t necessarily correspond to reality.” Grimme advocates “getting more partners on board, such as universities, trade and science.”