1mo ago

Munich wants to legalize parking on sidewalks

www.sueddeutsche.de München: Parken auf Gehwegen soll erlaubt werden - welche Voraussetzungen es gibt

München diskutiert über die Legalisierung des Gehwegparkens, um den Parkdruck zu lindern und Anwohner zu unterstützen.

Munich has some issues dealing with too many cars and illegal parking on the sidewalk is common.

The SPD mayor has the solution: change the law so that this rude habit becomes legal.

And what about pedestrians, people with wheelchair, strollers? I guess they'll have to adapt.

Fuck cars!

36 comments

Two things: this is an accepted practice all over the country and the traffic code has its own traffic sign for it when it is permitted. And the suggested amendment would only make it legal in situations where there would remain 1.6m of space for pedestrians, wheelchair users, and strollers. So the car parked in the image would remain illegally parked.
Munich has made a mistake of tacitly allowing this parking practice in areas where there isn't enough space, motivated by keeping roads accessible to first responders, which is not nothing. They have clearly made a mistake if everybody still owns a car when there s above average public transport. And people will still park like assholes. Under these plans (they haven't been approved yet according to the article), the assholes could be punished though. It would just not give fines out to everybody. This is a compromise solution in a bad situation.
I would amend the plans in two areas: the grumpy people of Munich should be allowed to smear dogshit legally on every car that doesn't leave 1.6m of space on the sidewalk (the article mentions a similar occurrence). And giving up car ownership should be rewarded with free public transport for a suitable amount of time.
- Once you tacitly allow this everywhere with your "yes, but allow 1.6m" rule, you've just actually allowed it everywhere with no qualifiers. No one is going to get a tape measure out and verify when they park. When its utterly common, I doubt police or enforcement officers will check either except very sporadically, allowing it to happen 99% of the time.
  A "yes insane thing, but only when sane" law is always, always a give away to the insane thing.
  
  No one is going to get a tape measure out
  You clearly don't know Germans. Yes they will. They already do. You're not allowed to park within 5m of an intersection, which the people in charge of checking and giving tickets will absolutely measure. There are many other instances where distances are involved like this. They already carry a tape measure (or equivalent) for this exact reason. Adding one more case just fits the theme.
  
  Germans love a rule, love pea counting, and they will measure.
  Your insane argument doesn't quite work for me when the mutual benefit of the practice was to provide ample space for fire trucks and ambulances on the roads. This is not a matter of the city just not giving a shit. They weighed their options.
  Another aspect that wasn't touched upon in the article will also play into this: parking fines are a great way to get money into the city coffers. So it will probably pay off to get members of the Ordnungsamt - or the office of public order - who handle these things out in force armed with a tape measure and a camera and chi-ching for Munich's revenue.
  
  No one is going to get a tape measure out and verify when they park.
  Dude clearly has no idea how autistic Northern Europe can be.
- I understand that they need to have it clear for first responders but parking on the sidewalk makes the sidewalk less usable. Also if first responders need to get through a street having the sidewalk available to get the car out of the way is more beneficial instead of street full of cars.
  Then there's the thing where cars will fill up the parking spots when possible and since it's not a metered parking spot there's a good chance it'll not get checked very often.
  In my view the result is effectively making the sidewalk smaller as if they would just remove it up to the 1.6m and replace it with on street parking. Investing in bike paths that can be used by first responders like in the Netherlands is a more effective way to deal with the same problem.
  
  I would argue the space on the sidewalk has already been reduced and this plan would just limit punishment to those who truly deserve it. And if this is policy it should include the staff hours for parking inspectors. They could take note of areas where sidewalk parking often reduces space to below 1.6m and then have bollards or other barriers installed in these hotspots.
  And, as I've also already mentioned, there should be more policies to encourage giving up on car ownership. I suggested free public transport for former car owners. New developments should include the need to build its own parking faculties on the property. Parking fees should be raised slowly but steadily. Resident parking only schemes could maybe push visitors to the area into public transport. There are more tools in that toolbox.
  BTW I'm not a fan of this plan. My sense of what is possible, i.e. politics, just forces me to grudgingly accept this as a compromise. If you reduce the space for parking, say, by planting trees or other physical obstacles (which will probably cost more than this), you'll be voted out. Politicians are more pragmatists than idealists. Nobody will stay in office long with radical anti car policies - as much as I would personally support that.
  In the context of small Munich alleys where space is scarce, where exactly should they build additional bicycle lanes that can be used by fire trucks? The shining examples of fuck cars infrastructure like Amsterdam and Copenhagen tend to be on flat land or the great infrastructure doesn't actually extend into the narrow capillary alleys that have been around since the middle ages. They also took decades to implement policies in increments to get to where they are. Munich is in my estimation probably at least a decade behind that.

Munich not trying to be the worst city in every category: impossible
- That's just not true. Munich is doing a lot more for public transit and biking than other cities. It's just suffering from an enormous amount of suburbs and their car dependant inhabitants. The city itself is on a very good path
  
  Also too many rich snobs that think owning a car is the pinnacle of freedom
  
  I fucking dream of cycling around Munich or Berlin.
  
  I am also counting in other aspects. And im speaking as a local

The solution here is to tow the cars parked on sidewalks, €1000 for the fee, that money goes to improved alternate and public transport. More parking is just demand inducing and will make it worse.
- Towing is a very predatory and sketchy industry when you let it off the leash, that's not the answer
  The answer is to centralize parking around highways at the edge of areas, then make it as inconvenient as possible to drive on the surface streets. Very low speed limits, people crossing whenever they want, and only disabled people can park on the street for more than 90 minutes
  Then just pour on the buses. Go very heavy with enforcement initially, and things will normalize.
  You have to make driving the inconvenient option

Hmm, BMW city you say?
- BMWelt

Park on the sidewalk & I will use your car as a sidewalk.
- I've actually adopted, 'if cars can occupy the pedestrian area, pedestrians can occupy the car area'.

So many European cities seem to be powered by contempt for the disabled.
- Most of them are, because they were built centuries ago when contempt for the disabled was even more en vogue than now. The difference is that this one is apparently going backwards in that regard, while many others are trying to go forward. For example, my city is gradually remodeling bus/tram stops to allow level access to the vehicle.

Wtf Bayern

Schisse.

it'll be a shame if nervous people dropped tacks, nails and screws on the edges of sidewalks... a shame
- It would be a shame. Ever stepped on a nail?

caltrops

It would be nice if the sidewalks were extended in width to fully accommodate a full car and a fully clear 1.8m sidewalk width at minimum.
This would mean if someone does not park their car, then the sidewalk becomes larger for everyone else to enjoy.
- First of all there's probably no space for sidewalks this wide on both sides plus a street unless you want to demolish a lot of houses. And second do you really think it wouldn't be constantly used as parking and therefore never be usable as a sidewalk?
  
  Never implied to demo homes or change setbacks, the idea would be to narrow the street to one actual car width as opposed to 2 or three car widths, extending the sidewalk width into the street.
  This has a added benefit as if the street needs repaving you only need to spend money on repaving of one car lane width, as opposed to 2 or 3 car widths on a single lane street.
  And now what happens is if a car is not parked that space becomes usable to a pedestrian to cross at or walk on.

Or they could just invest in roving compactors. Little cubes could be picked up with the rest of the trash.

36 comments