Transportation transformation in Munich: Difficult to achieve with "Diesel Dieter"

One can hardly believe their ears amidst the roaring of engines: At the opening of the temple of fossil car passion, Motorworld (note the signals: of all places, in a former railway repair shop!), Munich's Mayor Dieter Reiter from the SPD declares himself an "automobile enthusiast." As the head of the traffic congestion and fine dust metropolis, which is not only a leader in football but also in traffic burden. This is quite a surprising statement.

But it gets even better: "Driving is not just about getting from A to B. Driving can indeed be fun sometimes. I believe in the future of the car," Reiter stated.

This may all be true. But it certainly does not apply to Munich, where the "joy of driving" was industrially invented and propagated. However, in everyday life, it always ends in the "annoyance of standing still." Simply because 860,000 cars are registered in the Isar metropolis, occupying all streets and places, and daily another 500,000 commuters, most with cars, flood the congested streets. Almost half of all employees come from outside. This might be traffic, but it is no longer mobility.

Auto-mobility still has priority

As a resident of this otherwise beautiful city, one can only wonder how the head of a European city with acute air pollution issues, in light of the bold traffic changes in similarly congested cities like Paris, Barcelona, Madrid, Milan, obviously prioritizes the concerns and convenience of commuters over the health of the residents.

The SPD's parliamentary group leader in the city council recently proudly stated that they had persistently advocated for social exemptions behind the scenes against the dominant Greens for the recently decided diesel ban from 2023. Originally, the ban for Euro V diesels was supposed to come into effect on January 1, 2023. "It now being effective from October 1 is an SPD success." Whether residents along the polluted entry and exit roads see it the same way is questionable.

Ambivalent car city: Many "victims" are also "perpetrators"

And where does a social and workers' party expect to find more voters: behind the wheel of the many mostly single-occupant commuter vehicles from the surrounding areas, or along the busy axes of the city? But they have to figure that out for themselves. In Munich, many residents are both "victims" and "perpetrators." After all, someone owns the many cars often permanently parked in public spaces (otherwise you'd never find a parking spot again!). 

Statistics and daily experience as a fine dust-plagued cyclist (the only way to be truly "mobile" on the surface in Munich - and we love mobility!) show that it is rarely the elderly nurse with a very old (rarely diesel-powered) small car, commonly cited in talk shows, but usually newer mid- to upper-class cars, often the popular plug-in hybrid SUVs, which must have a significant nest somewhere in Munich.

However, all this is not really funny, more like absurd: Recently, the World Health Organization WHO pointed out that today's limit values, which Munich has failed to meet for years, which the CSU-governed Free State did not get under control and subsequently passed the responsibility to the municipality, these limit values are actually too high. They are potentially "life-threatening" over a lifetime regarding serious illnesses. Recent studies by British scientist Charles Swanton on the health risks of ultra-fine PM-2.5 particles confirm an increased risk of developing lung cancer. Additionally, these particles can enter the bloodstream, causing heart rhythm disturbances, and can also lead to diabetes via the pancreas.

Not least, these particles entering the brain significantly reduce cognitive performance, as a study from the University of Rostock revealed. With fine dust pollution at one's place of residence, cognitive performance indeed declined. Over a lifetime, the risk of dementia or Parkinson's disease increases. Therefore, it is necessary to keep the limit values as low as possible, concluded the researchers. Moreover, the population should be informed about the risks.

Whether this will happen precisely at Motorworld in Munich is questionable. In the diesel and even more so petrol fumes of the "holy halls," people still indulge in the scent and roar of the ending combustion world as we knew it. But unfortunately, we can no longer afford it if we want to keep the planet halfway livable. Against this background, the mayor's statements seem somewhat misplaced and at least slightly out of touch.

Bikes on car parking spaces: Not at all at the Isar!

Similarly, the recent statement in an interview with the tz, that bikes should not be parked on car parking spaces like in Berlin because that's an "ideologically driven" approach, as Reiter put it, completely forgetting that it is just as (auto)ideological to reserve them only for cars. And incidentally, bikes could already be parked there under a parking ticket.

People should show more tolerance towards each other in traffic (2.5-ton SUVs versus 75-kilo cyclists) and learn a more relaxed attitude from southern Italy, where not everyone insists on their rights.

A bit of "amore in traffic," as a recent campaign by the mobility department phrased it, as if the daily street battle caused by the overloaded space could be resolved with a little understanding. Has a magical Munich formula been discovered: goodwill replaces smart traffic planning, or what? And speaking of Italy!

The same Italy where emission and noise-plagued cities have radically banned combustion engine cars under heavy penalties, and strict congestion charges in cities like Milan or Turin regulate access, making the air and traffic suddenly wonderfully light? Anyhow. Back to the world of engines.

Wolfgang Reitzle believes e-mobility is a deception

For the words of other speakers (mostly male, older) like former Formula 1 manager Norbert Haug, who advocated for the energetically inefficient synfuels in passenger cars. Or former BMW and Linde manager Wolfgang Reitzle, who seriously views e-mobility's future as "long-term" and calculates that a diesel driver is currently more environmentally friendly than an e-car driver because the cost of a kilowatt-hour of electricity has risen so significantly. Unfortunately, diesel prices have not yet adequately reflected the environmental costs they cause, one can only add regrettably. E-mobility is a "deception," according to the recently-resigned Linde supervisory board member; transitioning 1.2 billion cars worldwide would take 50 years. So, should we not even start, or what is the conclusion? Sorry, but that's really "old school," to use the title of Reitzle's rather self-adoring podcast.

Contradictions at the Isar: Car-free downtown - yes, but no!

And the mayor, derided as "#Diesel-Dieter" in comments under a Süddeutsche Zeitung article? He continued to speak in a contradictory manner: Car-free downtown, yes, but no "imposition of a uniform concept." It wasn't like "we have top connections to public transport everywhere." Well, the MVG would thank him for that. At least within the city limits, the million-strong village Munich truly has a bus, tram, or subway stop at every corner. And outside since 1972, there's been a decent S-Bahn network.

That it is in a poor state, that's clear. But for improvement, Reiter could have ensured something during his now eight years leading the Isar metropolis. Or for a rapid cycle path network like in Copenhagen, offering commuters an alternative to cars. Whether they are objectively justified and green (red & yellow = warning, blue = parking/police, black = invisible, green = environment), about which the faction leader also extensively mocked, or not, is again a nice example of Munich's coziness and parochialism. Instead of being happy that there are finally a few meters of rapid cycle path before the next construction site stops the pedal heroes again. And there could have also been timely efforts to at least prevent the number of cars from continuing to grow.

Correcting the misguided development of an automobile-oriented city

It is not about, as Reiter apparently understands in the tz interview, taking something away from car drivers. But rather correcting the decades-long misguided development (of many cities) of the "automobile-oriented city," meaning distributing street space more fairly. Does habitual law apply in Munich?

The few glossy cars at Motorworld hardly matter anymore. One must generally say: better a few fine and consciously driven old-timers on Sunday than millions of overweight commuter cars on Monday.

And the superlative Motorworld Munich has another advantage: the huge underground garage, which was poured with 15 loads of concrete mixers daily for over a year. This we can confirm from our own experience: There was typically no way through here. As is often the case with cars in the whole city.

Next to the enormous hall of Motorworld, which is classified by fire protection as a separate district due to its size, lies the popular concert hall (another signal: railway repair shop!) called Zenith. The combustion engine has long surpassed its zenith. And from our point of view, it can be put in a museum. For instance, Motorworld.