Where do we want to go? Some road users in the district town are likely to hear this question in the near future – not as a prelude to small talk but in the service of science. To be more precise, traffic research, because an investigation into what’s going on on the streets of Ebersberg and why is still going to start in September.
The background is that there is often too much going on on the district town streets. For decades, there have been particular complaints about the heavy car and truck traffic, which does not necessarily make walking and cycling in Ebersberg any more pleasant. This raises the question of whether the situation could be improved by building another bypass for north-south traffic in addition to the southern bypass opened twelve years ago.
“Why does someone drive a car and not a bicycle.”
Because finding out how many cars and trucks are now driving through and how many are driving into the district town is one of the tasks of the investigation, as Mayor Ulrich Proske (independent) explained when presenting the project. It should also be clarified why the Ebersbergers used which means of transport, quite specifically: “Why does someone drive a car and not a bicycle?”
A noise action plan is also part of the study, i.e. a map on which the noise pollution is marked. “We can’t open a window in the town hall because otherwise you wouldn’t understand your own words,” says Proske, adding that many residential areas, especially along State Road 2080, are also affected. The mayor called them “our biggest, but not our only problem”.
State road 2080 runs right through Ebersberg and brings a lot of traffic. However, the share of pure through traffic is not known.
(Photo: Christian Endt)
It is hoped that the new study will shed light on which ones still exist and how large they are in detail. It is the first of its kind, says Rafael Stegen from the Salm und Stegen urban planning office, who moderates the transport working group. This is also where the impetus for the investigation came from, the main aim being that “a catalog of measures should not be drawn up quickly that cannot be implemented”, but rather that recommendations for action should ultimately be made that are really practicable and approved by a majority of the population would be supported.
This also includes the question of whether a north-south bypass is needed, which has been discussed with varying degrees of intensity in the district seat for several decades. According to Stegen, this should be easier to answer with the results of the study. According to Proske, there are currently assumptions about the proportion of through traffic – it is said to be around a quarter – that could be banished from the city by a new road around the outside of the city, but nobody knows whether the number is correct.
The traffic census will begin this month, and questionnaires will be sent out in October
Therefore, as explained by Klaus Schlosser from the Innsbruck office for traffic planning and spatial planning, which will carry out the investigation for the city, the traffic will be counted in a first step. On three non-consecutive working days in September, the license plates are to be recorded at the entrances and exits. As soon as a car leaves the city again, the number plate is deleted, according to Schlosser, and from the duration one can then conclude whether it is through traffic or whether the destination is in the district town.
At the same time, there will also be a road user survey. As with a traffic check, the police wave the cars onto the hard shoulder and ask the driver for their destination. But pedestrians and cyclists are also to be surveyed in order to find out which routes and which means of transport are used to which destinations.
The investigation takes a year and a half and costs the city around 180,000 euros
Furthermore, questionnaires are to be sent to around 900 households in mid-October. According to Schlosser, the result is representative if about a third of it is answered. This should be possible on paper, but also online. Among other things, they are asked which routes are taken and which means of transport are used.
At the end there should be a traffic model that shows, among other things, the proportion of through traffic. The first results are to be presented at a citizens’ forum in November, and another one is planned for early summer next year. Overall, a processing time of around one and a half years is expected, and the cost of the report is around 180,000 euros.
After that, the mayor is under no illusions, but it should be a good bit more expensive when it comes to implementing the measures: “The city will have to bear most of them.”