A verdict by the Bremen Administrative Court is causing creases in the local Senate. It’s about finding a solution for the thousands of cars that are currently parked illegally in the city.
Owners and residents of residential buildings in three districts of Bremen had asked the road traffic authority to intervene against the cars that had been parked on sidewalks on both sides of the street for years. Since the authority refused this in mid-2019, the complainants went to the administrative court against the responsible transport senator.
New legal territory
The court ruled (PDF), Section 12, paragraphs 4 and 4a of the Road Traffic Act, from which the fundamental ban on sidewalk parking follows, not only serves the interest of the general public, but also that of the residents who are specifically affected. The plaintiffs, as residents of streets where parking is not only occasionally but permanently illegal on the sidewalks, are in principle entitled to demand that the road traffic authority intervene. Since the administrative court attaches fundamental importance to the legal issues raised in the proceedings, it allowed an appeal against the judgment. The parties have one month to do this.
The special thing about the judgment is that the court has established this subjective right at all, and on public land, said administrative court spokesman Carsten Bauer loud daily newspaper. “It wouldn’t have been surprising if the chamber had seen it differently.” So far, the question of whether residents have a right to action being taken against parking on the sidewalk has not been discussed in case law. The plaintiffs believe that the judgment would not only strengthen pedestrian rights in Bremen.
“No room for maneuver”
The road traffic authority had argued that it had no room for maneuver if the authorities responsible for averting danger, the public order office, the police and the municipal security service, decided at their discretion not to intervene. Traffic signs do not have to be put up because the drivers are aware of the parking regulations.
The court, on the other hand, thinks that the road traffic authority is not limited to putting up traffic signs. She specializes in other precautions, including administrative enforcement. You are basically entitled to a discretion as to whether to intervene against the patch parking on the sidewalk. The authority should not fundamentally decide against intervening because of the special features of the individual case. Finally, the plaintiffs’ right to use the sidewalks when leaving and returning to their homes was significantly impaired because of the duration and frequency of the violations.
The road traffic authority could not tell the plaintiffs to turn to the regulatory authorities, since they usually did not intervene in the affected residential streets, so the plaintiffs were effectively without legal protection. The motorists concerned could not invoke a “customary right”.
“Beyond Reality”
According to estimates by the traffic authority, 50,000 cars would be parked in Bremen and thus parked illegally, about a fifth of all cars parked on the streets of Bremen. reports the local newspaper Weser courier, legal alternatives are rare. In Bremen, Interior Senator Ulrich Mäurer (SPD) and the defendant Transport Senator Maike Schaefer (Greens) are now facing each other with their opposing opinions.
So far, Schäfer has followed the course of “gradually reducing the parking pressure in the districts with measures such as resident parking, car sharing offers, expansion of public transport, strengthening cycling and other tools”. But now the parking must be stopped immediately; It is unclear how the Senator for Transport intends to implement this. In Hanover, for example, action is currently being taken in some parts of the city against illegal surface parking.
Bremen’s interior senator says the verdict ignores reality. If it were implemented consistently, tens of thousands of drivers would no longer have a parking space for their car, spokeswoman Rose Gerdts-Schiffler said loudly Weser courier. Existing concepts for parking in neighborhoods need to be promoted, i.e. identifying streets where parking can actually cause dangerous traffic situations and defusing these areas.
(anw)
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