With the decision taken in 2021 to participate in the national competition “ Mobil.NRW ”, the Council basically pursued a welcome goal: The Mobility Hub at Bremen Platz should set a visible sign for an environmentally friendly mobility turnaround. The project would certainly have had the potential to become a showcase project for Münster.
With regard to the dimensioning of the bicycle infrastructure, the actual needs and the strained household situation of the city must be kept in mind. In principle, it is important to plan ahead in the development of the bicycle infrastructure and also to create capacities beyond the immediate need, so that the promotion of cycling traffic is not slowed down in the meantime by lack of storage facilities. With the bike station at the Hansator on the east side of the station there is already a bicycle parking garage, which is not nearly used up so far.
Even if the Mobility Hub was planned with a high level of state funding, a significant proportion of its own remains with the city. Despite the desirable implementation of the project, this must be done within a financially acceptable framework. “In our opinion, the additional 3,000 bicycle parking spaces are not required under the current conditions,” says Sebastian Kappen, traffic policy spokesman for Volt Münster.
The model project, however, included not only the redesign of the parking garage, but also the important gap closure of the cycle route between Schillerstraße and Promenade. It is precisely this part that we continue to consider to be extremely useful and desirable. This should be implemented in a timely manner within the scope of the further implementation of the bicycle network 2.0, regardless of how the Mobility Hub continues.
Sebastian Kappen concludes: “We therefore consider it useful to focus urban investment on the measures that currently have the greatest benefit for the mobility transition. From our point of view, the closing of the cycle route between Schillerstraße and Promenade is expressly part of this and should not be abandoned because a building block of the overall project cannot be implemented.”
