Traffic turnaround in Hamburg: When traffic divides districts

Hamburg has decreed a change in traffic: fewer cars, wide cycle paths, new underground and S-Bahn lines. Entire residential districts are also fighting for traffic calming – which is more of a concern for some there.

In the Hamburg district of Eimsbüttel, citizens have planned on nothing less than a revolution: All parked cars are to be underground in a kind of large district garage, and the narrow streets along the beautiful, hundred-year-old apartment buildings are to become meeting areas for residents again.

Mathematically as tight as in Seoul

“As in the past, there were small gardens in front of many houses, citizens and families had real living space right in front of their houses,” says Jörn Bodewadt and puts an information table by the street.

“That one again”, grumbles a neighbor of the opposite. He has a business and needs his car. Eimsbüttel is extremely densely populated. There are 18,000 people on one square kilometer – in terms of numbers, it is almost as tight as in Seoul. And now almost everyone in Hamburg has their own car.

Residents against residents on the curb

But “there is no right to a parking space in front of your own apartment,” says Kai Ammer, who leads the small group of activists. The logo of “Superbüttel” is emblazoned on his T-shirt. The Eimsbüttel activists have been fighting for bike routes for years – now their attention is focused on the radical redesign of public space.

That is not without contradiction: “What is your problem, you crazy? I have a business here and want to drive on and park”, the man across the street, who does not want to say his name, grumbles implacably. Residents against residents on the curb.

There is always someone against it

Hamburg’s Senator for Transport Anjes Tjarks from the Greens is familiar with such discussions. Whenever it comes to traffic turnaround and construction projects, someone is against it. It doesn’t bother him. He shows us his visions of a real mobility revolution for the Hanseatic city from the bike.

The politician of the Greens doesn’t have a company car anyway, so we cycle along the Alster on wide cycle routes. “Cars sped through here in the past, hundreds of cars parked here all day. Now 10,000 people ride their bikes here every day,” he says proudly, while the blue tie wafts around his neck on the racing bike. A green man who hopes to be able to combine buses, trains and bikes in a meaningful way.

“‘Protected Bikelanes’, like in Copenhagen”

Tjarks stops at the large Esplanade construction site, a real hub in the middle of the metropolis: buses run here, including the subway, and entire lanes of cars would soon be rededicated here. Wide cycle lanes would come to the left and right – marked in red and with few traffic lights that could stop the flow of traffic. Opposite, the cycle lanes are structurally separated from the road.

“‘Protected Bikelanes’, like in Copenhagen,” says the Senator with a smile. He is also the master of 715 construction sites that are supposed to help with the mobility transition. “Last year we built 63 kilometers of new bike paths, spent 83 million euros on cycling areas, and now the local public transport system is getting 16 completely new stations.”

The goal: Local public transport must also reach distant parts of the city, a train should run every five minutes, then hundreds of thousands of commuters would also leave their cars, according to the theory. In practice, 360,000 commuters flock to the city every day – many in traffic jams with their cars.

“Benches, children’s toys and lots of free space”

The auto rebels from Eimsbüttel hope for faster solutions. Together with an agency, they have already created their vision of a play and promenade in the surrounding streets.

“Benches, children’s toys and lots of free space – that way, the public space could be distributed more fairly,” explains Kai Ammer, pointing with his finger at all the areas that would be available to citizens again if the metal boxes were gone.

Way through the courts instead of hasty decisions

In a survey in the neighborhood, the majority of car owners even voted for their ideas. Now the politics are still missing – and the money. So that they do not feel like they did in the Ottensen district, where politicians had banned all cars from the quarter in a rushed manner and a court then reversed everything, they want to continue down the slow path through the courts. In Ottensen, at that time, some tradespeople had allied themselves with residents against traffic calming because they were not felt to have been taken with the process.

Transport Senator Tjarks has now reached his “favorite construction site” by bike: six lanes. Traffic lights. Cars race, cyclists cross. It is still unclear who will drive where one day. It is just not easy to want to become a bicycle city and still remain a bit of an autostadt.