Berlin was on such a great path by giving more space to people instead of to cars. Too bad the rich people are winning the debate and taking back what little gains the general public made.
90% of all trips taken inside the Ring are done without a car, but cars get about 25% of the public space. Transferring more of that car space to bikes would enable even more efficient transit for multi-kilometer trips.
Even a city like Amsterdam, which is lauded for bike transit, is still 15-18% dedicated to cars. Berlin can do so much better with less car space, more pedestrian/cars, and densifying more of the housing construction.
I thought Berlin figured this out years ago. They have grey sidewalks for walking, red sidewalks for bikes, a lane for trams, a lane for cars. In the morning, business types ride bikes downtown in suits.
If only that were true across the city. The grey vs red is mostly true (some areas don’t have that clear of a delineation). There’s also some green roads that are bike-priority spaces.
Too much of the tram routes are completely shared with cars and don’t have signal priority for the trams. This causes lots of bunching and delays when cars just choose to not leave the tram rails to wait for turning lights. Those intersections need some serious overhauls (Looking the ones between Chausseestraße and Hbf).
If the city would remove more parking on side streets to open that space up for people and slim down the number of car lanes passing through areas it would help a ton. The whole idea of continuing to build the A100 through the city is insane given the last 80 years of evidence saying it’s bad for the city, the people, the climate, and the drivers. That’s very much an old model of thinking that the leadership is dangling in front of the conservatives to keep them happy at the expense of everyone.
Berlin was on such a great path by giving more space to people instead of to cars. Too bad the rich people are winning the debate and taking back what little gains the general public made.
90% of all trips taken inside the Ring are done without a car, but cars get about 25% of the public space. Transferring more of that car space to bikes would enable even more efficient transit for multi-kilometer trips.
Even a city like Amsterdam, which is lauded for bike transit, is still 15-18% dedicated to cars. Berlin can do so much better with less car space, more pedestrian/cars, and densifying more of the housing construction.
I thought Berlin figured this out years ago. They have grey sidewalks for walking, red sidewalks for bikes, a lane for trams, a lane for cars. In the morning, business types ride bikes downtown in suits.
If only that were true across the city. The grey vs red is mostly true (some areas don’t have that clear of a delineation). There’s also some green roads that are bike-priority spaces.
Too much of the tram routes are completely shared with cars and don’t have signal priority for the trams. This causes lots of bunching and delays when cars just choose to not leave the tram rails to wait for turning lights. Those intersections need some serious overhauls (Looking the ones between Chausseestraße and Hbf).
If the city would remove more parking on side streets to open that space up for people and slim down the number of car lanes passing through areas it would help a ton. The whole idea of continuing to build the A100 through the city is insane given the last 80 years of evidence saying it’s bad for the city, the people, the climate, and the drivers. That’s very much an old model of thinking that the leadership is dangling in front of the conservatives to keep them happy at the expense of everyone.
Berlin can do better.
It’s paradise compared to NA cities
And Mumbai as well I guess but we should keep getting better nevertheless