On the Topic of Transportation

In my regional state of Hessen....there's always a fair amount of political hype over 'fixing things'.  The topic came up this week over state funding and the future of transportation in the region.  For those who aren't aware....Hessen's government is a coalition deal, with the CDU sharing power with the Green Party (yes, an odd pair).  The Greens have control of the Transportation Ministry for Hessen, and this often leads to some curious moments.

First, there's a new agenda for more state funds to go toward electric mobility from 2018 and on....pushing the yearly amount to almost seven million Euro.  Where will it be spent?  More foot and bicycle paths....leading into urbanized areas or railway stations.

Naturally, the opposition in the state assembly (the SPD) said that this was not enough....they wanted more money spent.  The other opposition....the FDP....said there was some kind of 'hysterical fear' talk going on about diesel cars.

The political folks also wanted to hype up the talk that they are on the cutting edge and the main state in Germany....pushing for electric buses.  Wiesbaden for example....is supposed to completely shift from diesel buses to electric buses within four years.

I paused over this talk....I ride the Wiesbaden city bus network, and it's a 30-minute ride from mid-town to my village stop.  I can just see the bus-driver freaking out on an exceptionally cold day and noting the charge needle slipping by one-percent every two minutes.  He'll have to stop at the end of the route to recharge for an hour before he can make the return trip.  For some reason, I don't see this electric bus thing going well.

Then the next ministry topic came up....more e-Laden recharge stations around Hessen.  If you go looking....there just aren't that public stations around.  In my village?  Not a single one.  Some folks have a home-charging station set up but nothing for the general public.  So, there's going to be funding for some urban areas to set up ore recharge stations.

The opposition talk?  They think cheaper tickets for buses/trains....would be the long-term fix, and simply get cars off the road period.

Finally, I noted comments from the state president (Volker Bouffier, CDU).  He doesn't think any of this diesel-car banning business will occur. Maybe down the road toward 2030....things settle in a different way, but he's talking like the ban will never occur in Hessen.

A hot topic in the public mind?  There are bits and pieces over all of this talk which register with the typical adult German in Hessen.  If you asked a hundred Hessens about getting a electric car....maybe five would be positive about the idea, and maybe another five could be persuaded....the bulk of folks think this is still twenty years away on technology.

On the bike trail topic, I'm kinda shocked at the extent of progress over the past two decades.  With plans on the map....a guy could (in the next three years) get on a bike and ride forty kilometers to work each morning very easily in the urban zone of Frankfurt.  They even talk of lighted paths and wide-lanes for bicycle flow.