To avoid any misunderstandings: the author of these lines rode his bike to work and would have done so even if the A66 had not been closed in between.

It is also remarkable when thousands of people are so committed to campaigning for a much clearer traffic turnaround in Hesse than previously planned: the aim of the high-profile trip to Wiesbaden to the local Minister of Economics and Transport is a referendum that should lead to a traffic turnaround law , which aims to make mobility in Germany “climate-neutral and socially just” by 2030.

Cycle paths, footpaths and, above all, buses and trains are to be significantly expanded.

That moves many.

The organizers have achieved at least one goal: by choosing the route via the Autobahn, they have attracted maximum attention.

But how is it going to continue now that maximum obstruction for other road users and quite dangers with a view to oncoming traffic on the other side of the hard shoulder have been accepted for this attention?

In order to get a referendum off the ground, you first need the signatures of one percent of those entitled to vote, in Hesse that is around 45,000 signatures under an application for approval, and a bill that does not violate the constitution.

If this step clears all hurdles, and the actual number of signatories indicates this, the collection of signatures for the actual referendum will follow.

Then it is up to the state parliament to either agree or there will be a referendum.

This is a legitimate path, but it has never led to the goal in the history of the state of Hesse.

Either the referendums were not approved or did not have enough support.

It is not possible to know how things will continue in a specific case.

But one suspects that the cargo bikes on the Autobahn carried owls to Athens anyway.

After all, almost no one doubts that local public transport needs to be expanded and that at least better high-speed cycle paths for commuters need to be built throughout the region, not even the Green Party minister who visited Wiesbaden.

A lot of money is already flowing into the corresponding projects.

Certainly more is possible.

However, the route chosen via the Autobahn from Frankfurt to Wiesbaden again suggests that the car is the root of all evil.

Those caught unprepared for the associated lockdowns are being given the finger;

with a look at the exhaust gases in the truest sense of the word, one or the other cyclist will have thought.

But this view of the world is too narrow.

If the country can afford the faster turnaround to more modern, modular and climate-neutral transport concepts that is not only desired by the demonstrators, then it can only do so with the help of an efficient transport system that works in the here and now.

Cars and trucks are and will remain an integral part of this.

And this requires an industry that makes every effort to become more climate-friendly, while continuing to build (e-)cars, for which you also need roads.

There is no such thing as black and white in the world, even if today's discussion culture all too often suggests that things are different.