The Alsatian Parking in Wiesbaden

If you travel around Wiesbaden, and get over onto the west end of town....along Klarenthaler Strasse....heading out of town....there's this big unpaved parking lot.  Big enough for roughly three hundred vehicles....it is a 'mess' that most of the locals would like to fix. It's gravel and dirt....with potholes big enough to shove a six-pack of beer into.

With all the resources that Wiesbaden has.....you'd think that the city would have taken the parking lot a decade or two ago.....and paved it with just plain asphalt.  For some reason....they've avoided addressing the lot....up until the last year or two.

So a research project was started....with University of Mainz students doing the numbers collection and analysis.  The locals use the open lot....but a number of commuter folks use the lot as well.  Since it's free.....no one says much....except they are fairly unhappy at the lack of organization, and the lack of asphalt.

A deal was put up....to entice someone to build a underground parking garage.  The emphasis I think....was to make the cars literally disappear, and to make the top appear as a nice tidy GREEN park.  Landscaping was a key feature that you'd have to contend with.

Well....in the end....only one company showed much interest.  But the deeper they got into discussions and this significant commitment to landscaping....the less thrilled the company was.  From reporting in the local press....I get the impression that the company wanted the city to fund a fair portion of the project.  Another issue was the complaint from the local neighborhood.....they wanted guaranteed parking in this deal.  They didn't say free, but they'd like for this to be pretty low-cost.  Currently, the lot is totally open and free.

If you had to pick a German city with major parking issues....Wiesbaden is it. Around two dozen-odd public parking garages exist in Wiesbaden.  The city operates a bus system which is used by city residents to a great extent.  No trolley cars or subways in Wiesbaden....just buses.  For business operations that exist in the city.....commuters from the outlying region are in a difficult spot.  The city never has put emphasis into larger (free) parking lots on the exterior boundary with public transportation taking you the last mile or two.

Free street parking is something that the city survives upon, and grumbles about on a continual basis.  You'd think that they'd put some effort into bike trails within the city (like Paderborn).....but that's a topic for 2040 or beyond.  The possibility of light-rail finally being introduced?  Maybe by 2020, there might be one line in existence for the city, but it's still a topic of discussion.

So when you hear of the Alsatian Platz....you can just imagine a big dirt and gravel lot, with no organization of sorts, and three hundred cars crammed into it.  Yeah, it's something you'd imagine in Louisiana....not Germany.