In Berlin, parking fees will increase for motorists from January 1, 2023. On Tuesday, the Senate decided on the long-awaited change to the parking fee regulations.
Depending on the fee level, the hourly fees increase from one, two and three euros to two, three and four euros.
On the other hand, there will be a general exemption from January 1 for parking bicycles, pedelecs, cargo bikes, light motorcycles and motorbikes in parking lots.
According to a press release from the Senate Department for the Environment and Mobility, the users of these two-wheelers should be encouraged to make more use of car parking spaces.
CDU criticized: unnecessary conflicts programmed
The decision by the red-green-red Senate to increase parking fees has met with clear criticism from the opposition.
The traffic policy spokesman for the CDU parliamentary group, Oliver Friederici, criticized that unnecessary conflicts between car drivers and cyclists were programmed.
This is an example of the fact that the red-green mobility policy is thought and made in opposition to each other instead of together.
In view of the rising costs, the increase is also difficult to understand: Friederici said that anyone who promises relief for the people of Berlin in the energy crisis should not at the same time dig into their pockets with higher parking fees.
"More and more people now have to turn the euro twice, additional burdens don't fit in at the time."
The traffic policy spokesman for the FDP parliamentary group in the House of Representatives, Felix Reifschneider, criticized the fact that the Senate was failing to build bicycle parking spaces and parking garages at S-Bahn and U-Bahn stations if mass car parking spaces were to be converted into bicycle parking spaces.
"The left-Green Senate and the Green-dominated districts are continuing their ideological fight against the car here," says Reifschneider: "One gets the impression that the Green Senator for Transport is intentionally fueling the conflicts in order to distract attention from her failures."
Mobility Senator wants to free the sidewalks
Mobility Senator Bettina Jarasch (Greens) told RBB on Wednesday: "It is the case that bicycles, but also electric and other small vehicles are actually vehicles and that means they can be parked in parking lots." The goal is very clear: "I I finally want the bikes, scooters and other small vehicles to disappear from the sidewalks where they have been legally tolerated until now.”
A spokeswoman for the Senate pointed out that the ordinance amending the parking fee regulation only regulates a general exemption from the parking fee obligation for bicycles, pedelecs and motorcycles, for example.
Otherwise, the road traffic regulations apply to parking and parking, which is federal law and is not changed by the ordinance of the Senate.