LETTER FROM BERLIN

Unlike Paris, or other German cities – such as Tübingen, a pioneer in this field, or Hanover, which has great ambitions – Berlin will not be going on a crusade against SUVs, those heavy, polluting, bulky cars which, for the first time in 2023, accounted for more than half of new vehicle sales in Europe. "We have no intention of increasing parking charges for SUVs. More broadly, we have no plans to impose new rules on their owners," said Berlin's deputy mayor in charge of transport on Tuesday, February 6.

In truth, this has been no surprise to anyone. Two days after the citizens' vote held in Paris, which approved the tripling of SUV parking rates – by a narrow majority (54.5%) and despite a very low turnout (5.7%) – the real surprise would have been for Berlin to propose a similar measure.

For the past year, the German capital has been run by a great friend of cars. A candidate for the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in the municipal elections of February 12, 2023, Kai Wegner even made it one of his campaign slogans: "Berlin is for everyone, even motorists," read one of the former insurance salesmen's posters. "Berlin, don't let the car be banned," read another. On election day, the CDU came out well ahead in outlying neighborhoods, where the proportion of car-owning households is highest. At the same time, it clearly outperformed the Greens in central areas, where the number of cars per inhabitant is lowest.

The first right-wing mayor elected to head Berlin since 1999, Wegner has wasted no time in making his mark. In coalition with the Social Democrats (SPD), he has set about unraveling what the latter achieved in the transport sector in previous years, when they ran the city with the Greens and the left-wing party Die Linke.

The major issue has been bike lanes. In June 2023, two months after the new mayor's inauguration, his deputy for transport declared a moratorium on current projects, the idea being to abandon the idea of reserving bike-only lanes likely to "slow down automobile traffic." After the bitter setback suffered by the previous administration, who had their decision on Friedrichstrasse – a major shopping street where pedestrianization turned into a fiasco – overturned by the administrative courts, this new approach seemed to make good sense.

Due to disastrous communication, however, the announcement caused an uproar. After several demonstrations by angry cyclists, the new administration eventually decided to backtrack and give the green light to 16 of 19 cycle paths agreed by the previous team. But time had been lost, and of the 60 or so kilometers intended to be converted for bikes by 2023, only around 20 have seen the light of day.

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