One of those cities in Germany that had the diesel car ban in discussion stage....was Stuttgart. To be honest, there's a fair amount of jobs located within Stuttgart, which lead to employees who simply don't want to live in the city, or it's shadow....so over the decades, they'd moved out into suburbs and towns way beyond the city limits, and diesel cars became part of their solution to getting to work each day.
The Green Party in Stuttgart eventually came to this alternate idea instead of banning diesel cars, which involved innovation and traffic management. This week, it's being openly discussed.
The basic concept? The speed limit in Stuttgart (on the regular streets and roads) will be set at 40 kph (instead of the norm throughout Germany of 50 kph).....you'd basically be driving 6 mph slower. Tied into this idea, the lights and traffic patterns would be set to allow continuous traffic, with less 'stop-and-go' situations.
How much less on nitrogen oxide? Scientifically, it's not factual, or proven yet.
However, added to this....the older model diesel cars (more than 10 years old) in the category of Euro-5 types....would be banned by mid-part of 2020 in Stuttgart.
So the evidence of the Temp 40 program might demonstrate enough of a change to collapse this entire argument over diesel cars? No one says much over that, but you'd have to assume that something positive will come out of this idea.
For anyone over the last decade who has had to deal with German traffic patterns.....rush-hour traffic with stop and go situations.....has been a major pain. Yesterday, I had to drive into Wiesbaden around 8 AM, and found myself shocked that I'd get five to six lights in a row set to green. To reach my destination.....roughly 20 km.....I stopped only four times. Maybe this idea of revolutionizing traffic patterns has already been implemented in some areas.
No comments:
Post a Comment