When it comes to mobility transition, Berlin is the one and only city moving in the wrong direction, compared to the rest of germany. I do understand that the NYT correspondent is located in Berlin, but the perspective they give is misleading. There is (quite often a bipartisan) suport for mobility transition at the municipal level. The main hurdle remains the federal government, ministry of transportation and the federal laws.
No discredit to the NYT overall, but purely on covering the things happening in Berlin I would say consider they aren’t the best medium to cover this / the best source to inform this particular community. Would have really liked it if they would’ve related this to the culture-war they have at home. I mean the way the left and the right each have taken their side of the electorate hostage preventing the formation of a middle-ground isn’t dissimilar to that in other polarized discussions.
Congestion pricing should be introduced in all major cities.
Did you cut off half the article or does it not actually mention any of the anti-car candidates? It’s not a fight if there’s only pro-car candidates. Also, it’s worth mentioning that the SPD is generally also a pro-car party. If in doubt, look at Hannover, the local SPD broke off a red-green coalition because the green mayor wants to build more bicycle lanes.
There are no “anti-car candidates”, there are only candidates that consider intrests of car mobility not the only interests worth to consider.
I’m not a fan of AfD, but i have to say them putting up signs “no car is illegal” is ballsy though.
Berlin is the city in Germany with arguably the best public transport network. It is very easy to get from one point to another by train. At the same time it‘s the city with the widest avenues, making cars a not so problematic option as well. It least compared to all other cities in Germany.
This is kind of a non-issue and blown out of proportions I would say.
the widest avenues, making cars a not so problematic
Id argue that, at the very least, those avenues being wide is itself problematic
The pro-car signs of parties were not related to the election in autumn but to a popular petition, “Berlin car-free”, that had until May to gather enough signatures for that question to be piggybacked to the election in autumn.
They failed to do so, so there won’t be referendum on this matter.
Yeah, they only got to around 130k signatures and needed about 170k to make the ballot.
This was after years of legal fights where the major parties backed everything, including poster campaigns against the signature gathering effort itself, to halt the citizens referendum. Eventually the courts had to rule the referendum constitutional.
It’s insane how hard the mainline parties fight making cities better for people. It’s all for the rich to be richer.