Fact Check: Free Bikes in Parking Lots: Is This New?

In some corners of Berlin, drivers have to do one or two more rounds after work in search of a parking space - as in other major German cities.

Fact Check: Free Bikes in Parking Lots: Is This New?

In some corners of Berlin, drivers have to do one or two more rounds after work in search of a parking space - as in other major German cities. Now some fear that the problem could worsen in the coming year. Because from January new rules for parking will apply in the German capital. The bone of contention is the supposedly new way of parking bicycles in parking lots.

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From January, bicycles, motorbikes, pedelecs and scooters will also be allowed to park in Berlin's car parks.

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No, they've been allowed to do that for years.

These are the facts: Beatrix von Storch, deputy chairwoman of the AfD parliamentary group, complains about a "war against the car". The Berlin CDU member of the Bundestag Jan-Marco Luczak senses an "ideological fight against motorists". It is a thorn in their side that in the future bicycles could increasingly be parked in areas that are supposedly intended for cars. A new chapter in the dispute between motorists and cyclists.

But even on sidewalks in Berlin it is sometimes narrow. Scooters, motorcycles, rental and cargo bikes, pedelecs or bicycles - in some places pedestrians sometimes have to walk in wavy lines.

That had happened

At the end of November, the red-green-red Senate led by Governing Mayor Franziska Giffey (SPD) decided on the long-awaited change to the parking fee regulations. From January 1, 2023, parking fees will increase for the first time in 20 years. Bicycles, pedelecs, cargo bikes, light motorcycles and motorbikes, on the other hand, should be allowed to be parked in parking lots free of charge.

The fact that they are allowed to stand there at all is not new. According to the German Road Traffic Act (StVO), public parking spaces or areas designated for parking at the side of the road have not always been intended exclusively for motor vehicles, but may also be used by other vehicles. These also include two-wheelers of all kinds. Under the StVO item "Parking and stopping" (paragraph 12), no distinction is made between cars and bicycles.

For the most recent StVO reform of 2020, there was initially a plan to ban parked bicycles from hard shoulders and lanes. However, the Federal Council deleted the sentence, among other things because, in its opinion, "it would have resulted in an unjustifiable disadvantage compared to motor vehicles".

This is new to the Berlin regulation

The only new thing about the Berlin regulation from 2023 is that bicycles, motorcycles and the like should be exempt from parking fees. Previously, anyone who wanted to avoid these costs simply parked on the sidewalk.

"I finally want bicycles and scooters and other small vehicles to disappear from the sidewalks, where they have been legally tolerated until now," said Berlin Mobility Senator Bettina Jarasch (Greens) recently to RBB.

However, some now fear that the new rules could increase the shortage of parking spaces in the capital. However, in practice, cyclists will certainly ask themselves whether their vehicle would not be better secured against theft when connected to a bicycle frame than standing free on the side of the road.

Space-saving parking for everyone

In addition, all road users must park in a space-saving manner. A scenario in which several bicycles are parked individually at large distances next to each other in order to prolong the search for a parking space for as many drivers as possible for ideological reasons would certainly contradict the StVO.

Nevertheless, the traffic policy spokesman for the CDU parliamentary group in the Berlin House of Representatives, Oliver Friederici, has vague ideas about unnecessary conflicts between car drivers and cyclists. His colleague Felix Reifschneider from the FDP faction speaks of an "ideological fight against the car".

Above all, the press release from the Senate Department for the Environment and Mobility caused displeasure. It states that cyclists, pedelec riders or motorcyclists should be encouraged "to make greater use of these traffic areas". Later, the Senate Chancellery said a little more cautiously on Twitter: Bicycles and the like should "generally be parked in the places intended for them".

All information on the dpa fact checks Contact page for the dpa fact check team

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