"It's about reclaiming public space"

The "Alliance for Transport Transition Now" has been active in Würzburg since April. We spoke with Marie Büchner and Niklas Dehne about the alliance, cycling, public transport and the attempt to reclaim public space. 

Sprachrohr: What is the "Alliance for Transport Transition Now"?

Marie Büchner: We are an alliance of parties, businesses, associations, clubs and private individuals. It was founded in April. That's when we went public. We have five different, major topic areas. These would be cycling, pedestrian traffic, public transport, the reduction of private motorised transport (motorised individual transport; editor's note) and quality of life. There are about 70 active people. 

Sprachrohr: What does the alliance mainly do?

Marie: We have various working groups that meet regularly. There we agree on a common position and look for solutions. We had the cycling referendum as our first citizen initiative, but let's see what else comes. 

Sprachrohr: The theme of this Sprachrohr issue is "Study as a Side Matter", so for example also getting involved on the side. How can you get involved with you?

Marie: If you're interested in the different modes of transport, you can come to the cycling working group or the public transport working group. But we also have a large media team, or we're looking for people who can write to fill the website with content. Best to come to an interested parties meeting. We're also keen to find people from the district. 

Sprachrohr: And how exactly do you proceed?

Marie: With the cycling referendum, we had a large catalogue of demands and the city councillors who are active in the alliance were also supposed to submit a proposal. 

Sprachrohr: How did the cycling referendum work exactly?

Marie: In Berlin there was the first citizen initiative on the subject of cycling and in Munich a cycling referendum. We wanted to do that here too. Concretely, that happened in July. We made it a bit easier for ourselves by orientating ourselves towards the goals of the Munich cycling referendum. Otherwise it would have taken longer. We then set the European Mobility Week at the end of September as our deadline. We organised the signature collection decentrally, so that people could sign in various cafés and shops. We started collecting on 16 September and on 20 September we heard that the mayor had submitted our demands as a proposal to the city council. We didn't expect it to be accepted after just 10 days. 

Sprachrohr: And what are your demands?

Marie: The main goal is that everyone can get to their destination safely. Including schoolchildren. We want to improve the quality of cycle paths, have separate traffic lights for cyclists, make junctions and intersections safer and provide better cycle parking facilities. We also want cycle paths to be at least 2.30 metres wide.

Sprachrohr: On the cycling referendum website you can find a map where problem areas are listed. Is this a service for cyclists or are the reported locations forwarded to the city?

Marie: We've already collected some problem areas in a catalogue of demands, which we forwarded to the city councillors. 

Sprachrohr: Do you have the concern that the rapid adoption of the cycling referendum's demands is merely symbolic politics?

Marie: Of course. Our fear is that it will only be implemented gradually and only at newly built junctions. But the goal was for everything to be improved. 

Sprachrohr: Is the cycling referendum legally binding?

Marie: Yes, but it also has to be enforced. We're now also working on getting the city councillors who are active in the alliance to submit corresponding proposals. 

Sprachrohr: So the cycling referendum that was pushed through is a first success. What are your next goals?

Niklas Dehne: We're focusing on the topic of transport transition, especially in view of the municipal elections. At the moment, more and more people are discovering the topic for themselves and that's a good thing. This increases the pressure on politics and on candidates. There's a lot to do. The streets are overloaded, our pavements are too narrow. So it's difficult to say that a particular topic is the next goal. We'll stay active. 

Sprachrohr: You said there's a lot to do, but could you perhaps highlight one thing? What is the biggest problem in Würzburg?

Niklas: I think it's about reclaiming public space. Würzburg is very beautiful, but it's also quite cluttered with parked cars. And for example, the Main riverbank could be a nice promenade, but we're turning it into a racetrack for shortcut traffic. In Würzburg, priorities are set differently. First it's important that the lorry can park somewhere and unload and thus everything is cluttered with cars. The pedestrian zone has only developed in recent years. But the whole thing is still manageable. The tram hasn't been expanded since the end of the nineties either. Since then there's been stagnation, parts have even been dismantled in Heidingsfeld. To change the mindset here, you need patience. But for example, the citizen referendum on Kardinal-Faulhaber Square showed that the broad majority no longer wants every square metre to be given over to parking, but also needs a green space to relax. And I would also say that the majority of the city's population wishes for a completely different city atmosphere.

Sprachrohr: You say that the majority of Würzburg residents wish for a different city atmosphere. Is Würzburg a green city? 

Marie: Würzburg seems quite divided to me. There are many people who don't own a car at all. We also have many students, most of whom don't have their own car. But there are also incredibly many people who commute to the city by car every day. You also can't tell people that they should only cycle. That's why we have five topics. If you combine cycling and public transport, for example, you can more easily do without a car than if you tell everyone to do without a car. But are we really green? We were also attacked by the retail association for the cycling referendum. Overall, Würzburg is quite divided. 

Niklas: Based on the evaluation of mobility behaviour, we can already see that there's a big difference depending on the age group. Older people do drive more by car. Younger people move multimodally. In our age group, we don't rely on just one mode of transport: we cycle sometimes, we take the bus sometimes and we also drive sometimes, but not exclusively. This might also be a kind of generational conflict being played out here. But ultimately it's about living healthily. The air here in the city is really not good. And you can feel it. Whether Würzburg is a green city, I don't know, but the many young people do the city real good. There's also discussion about many new ideas.

Sprachrohr: We've talked a lot about the city now, but as Marie also mentioned, many people commute to the city. Including many students. How do you imagine an optimal journey to Würzburg from the district?

Niklas: That varies. In the Main valley, we already have a kind of prototype for a rapid cycle route with the Main cycle path. If you can get to a train station by bike, that's also good. It has to be uncomplicated and it shouldn't be unpleasant either. Many different factors come into play. You can reduce it to three categories. If it's safe, uncomplicated and pleasant, it follows naturally. 

Sprachrohr: Do you have a solution for commuters who come from poorly connected and distant places? 

Niklas: That's a bigger, structural problem. The car will still play a role. Hopefully the drive technologies will change soon. But you don't have to park the car in the middle of the city; you can also drive to a train station and travel comfortably by train from there into the city. 

Sprachrohr: Couldn't public transport surely be a solution?

Niklas: The problem with public transport is that profitability is scrutinised meticulously, whereas it's disregarded for car traffic. This means that the bus from the district goes to school once a day and maybe twice back. This is because many routes are operated on a self-financing basis. The bus should run at least hourly. Then the bus is sometimes not full, but it's similar with roads. 

Marie: If public transport isn't financed through ticket sales, people quickly talk about a loss-making business, whereas with car traffic it's more about investments. 

Sprachrohr: Keyword investments: What's your position on free public transport?

Niklas: The topic of free public transport was also discussed with us. But it wasn't supported by a majority. For now, it's first about getting reliable regular customers. The semester ticket generates regular customers because students don't think about whether it's worth it because they already have it. As a first step, we need to tackle the tariff confusion in the cities. We want a subscription system. 

Sprachrohr: What other ideas do you have for public transport in Würzburg?

Niklas: We want line 6. I also think it makes sense to make it a separate line because the university needs a different frequency during peak times than other districts with normal residential and commercial areas. A line to Versbach would also be possible because Versbacher Straße is wide enough. In the long term, we also want to expand into the district. If you look at the commuter traffic from the direction of Höchberg, where there's no rail transport and buses are often stuck in traffic, you could connect significantly more people to public transport if you created a new tram line there. 

Many thanks to Marie Büchner and Niklas Dehne for the interview. Further information about the "Alliance for Transport Transition Now" can be found at http://www.verkehrswende-wuerzburg.de.

Max Schäfer