Eine Verifox-Umfrage räumt mit dem Mythos teurer E-Mobilität auf: Ist für Sie Laden schon günstiger als Tanken?
Branchen-Newsletter
Wir informieren Sie kostenlos zweimal wöchentlich über die aktuellen Entwicklungen in Sachen New Mobility.
Meist gelesen
Aktueller Top Event
Branchenguide
Park and Ride falters - Cities need comprehensive concepts
Around 400,000 commuters make their way to Frankfurt daily for work. Those who don't live near a train station often rely on their own car—at least for part of the journey. Park-and-ride (P+R) facilities facilitate the switch to a train. However, the number of these facilities is sometimes insufficient, and the Frankfurt Chamber of Industry and Commerce (IHK) is calling for an expansion.
The P+R offerings are not efficient and attractive enough to enable commuters to switch from mere car usage. "This is evident every day from the numerous commuters stuck in traffic on highways, country roads, and city streets to and from work," explains an IHK spokesperson. To advance the expansion, the IHK is demanding a cross-city collaboration between Frankfurt and the surrounding cities and municipalities.
Sample Shows Overloaded Facilities
The city of Frankfurt itself, upon request, cites a sample survey from early 2024, according to which 6 of 13 P+R facilities in the city area with around 2,000 parking spaces are overloaded. Sixty percent of the facilities are at least 90 percent occupied, reports a spokeswoman for the Department of Mobility. However, misuse has also been identified, such as trailers and motorhomes being parked where commuters should be able to park their vehicles.
More spaces should ideally be created in the region: "The goal must be for commuters to cover no or only very short distances locally with their private vehicle and then cover the long distance to Frankfurt in an environmentally friendly way using public transport." However, the city has no immediate influence on this.
A P+R concept is currently being developed to identify expansion and new construction potentials at the city limits. Besides an attractive public transport offering, sufficiently large areas and environmentally friendly road connections are needed to make a meaningful contribution to the overall traffic system.
ADAC Sees Need for 10,000 Spaces
From the ADAC's perspective, integrated concepts are needed, considering all modes of transportation, including bus, bicycle, and pedestrian traffic. In the coverage area of the Rhine-Main Transport Association (RMV), there are currently around 260 park-and-ride locations with approximately 28,000 parking spaces, with a demand for thousands more spaces, says traffic expert Lukas Berkel from ADAC Hessen-Thuringia. However, the expansion has stalled for years.
Conversely, demand for parking spaces has somewhat decreased in some areas. At the Groß-Karben station, for example, pre-COVID pandemic, the park-and-ride spaces were generally all occupied on weekday mornings, whereas now utilization is between 85 and 90 percent, says Ekkehart Böing, traffic planner for the town in the Wetteraukreis. Apart from the imposition of fees, the fact that many employees work from home likely contributes to this.
Those who want to take the S-Bahn towards Frankfurt or Friedberg from the station can also use buses from all Karben districts, which is already included in the ticket price—thus, the city aims not only to relieve the P+R spaces but also the city road network. Further parking spaces are currently not planned, according to Böing.
Traffic jams in the Rhine-Main area are hardly avoidable even with more P+R options
Creating these is difficult due to land-use competition, especially with housing construction, as ADAC expert Berkel says. And even if the missing parking spaces were built, daily traffic jams in the densely populated Rhine-Main area with hundreds of thousands of cars on the roads could not be avoided, he is convinced. The goal of CO2 reduction cannot always be achieved with additional P+R parking spaces, because people who originally traveled by bus to the train station are more likely to switch to cars for this route if they are assured a parking space there.
Nevertheless - because cities like Frankfurt are relying on reducing parking spaces to create more space and safety on the roads for public transport, cyclists, and pedestrians - more P+R options in the surrounding areas are important, says the ADAC expert. Where spaces are lacking, cooperation, for example with supermarkets or companies that have free employee parking spaces, could help. The Rhine-Main area generally offers good accessibility to train stations - a station can be reached by car within 15 minutes on about 80 percent of the RMV area.
The Frankfurt Regional Association adds that the key to reducing car traffic is reliable and punctual train services with a schedule that is attractive for the growing population of the region. "If this is not provided, more people consider using a car," says the association.
Translated automatically from German.
Branchenguide
Elektromobilität , Newsletter Elektromobilität , IAA Mobility , SUVs und Geländewagen , Hybrid , Antriebsarten, Kraftstoffe und Emissionen , Oberklasse- und Sportwagen , Carsharing , Autonomes Fahren (Straßenverkehr) , Ladeinfrastruktur , Verkehrspolitik , Formel E , Brennstoffzellen , Fahrzeug-Vernetzung und -Kommunikation , Fahrzeuge & Fuhrpark , Automotive-Messen & Veranstaltungen , Pkw, Kompakt- und Mittelklasse , Minis und Kleinwagen , E-Auto-Datenbank, E-Mobilität-/Automotive-Newsletter, E-Auto-Tests
