The business people in the Oeder Weg complain about a lack of customers and noticeably lower sales. Business people are missing customers.
Frankfurt – The expansion of bicycle traffic and the pushing back of cars in Frankfurt are worrying many retailers. This can be seen in the burning glass in the Oeder Weg in the north end. The main street was remodeled last April. Many shop owners are now feeling this. Where one car used to park next to the other, there are bicycle racks or large planters in the Oeder Weg. Restaurants and bakeries have placed chairs and tables there. Large, red areas indicate priority for cyclists.
“It was my dream to open a bookshop here in the street,” says Maria Lucia Klöcker. Nine years ago she dared to start her new career with her bookstore Weltenleser. In 2020 it was recognized as one of the eight best bookstores in Germany. The works are sorted on the shelves according to the country of action. You can read your way through the world.
“Oeder Weg was always my dream road,” remembers Klöcker. The family lived in Eckenheim for a long time, from there they walked into the city via Oeder Weg. “It was one of the most beautiful streets in town.” The shops were completely different. “It was extremely lively.” Susanne Bänfer nods – and sighs. “It’s dead now, like dead.” Bänfer has her shop “Hutcouture” a little down the street. She has been selling her own hat fashion for 31 years. You rarely find a store like hers in Germany.
Oeder Weg in Frankfurt: Hardly any people on the sidewalks
There are hardly any people on the sidewalks, reports Bänfer. She and Maria Klöcker attribute this to the fact that fewer and fewer cars have been able to drive through and park since last year. “We had just survived Corona when the city got going.” In the course of the conversion to a bicycle-friendly side street, parking spaces were reallocated and access was also made more difficult: in the south, the connection from Eschenheimer Tor was blocked in August 2021, in the north in April last year the passage by means of a “diagonal barrier”. Cars and trucks now have to find their way through the maze of one-way streets in residential areas.
The businesswomen describe the consequences as drastic: “They have 40 percent less sales compared to the time before Corona and the redesign,” says Susanne Bänfer. Because there is no through traffic, there are also no spontaneous customers such as tourists. Many would have discovered her shop when she stopped at the traffic light, parked, and came to her.
Antiques dealer Horst Fuhrmann has already reported a 50 percent drop in sales. The pipe shop and jewelry Hilgenfeld are already gone, a new porcelain shop decided against the location, says Bänfer. “There used to be really great boutiques here,” she revels.
The decline in sales is clear in Weltenleser, says Maria Klöcker. The proponents of the bicycle-friendly conversion refer to studies that even promise higher sales through more cyclists than drivers. “That’s not the case here,” says Bänfer. What could be due to the buyer clientele: Hutcouture customers sometimes come from far away, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Dubai. Some of the Weltenleser visitors come from the district, but there are also older people from other districts. In the past, however, a large number of wealthy customers from the surrounding area came to Giessen, Fulda and Mannheim. “Many made a trip here,” says Klöcker. “They just don’t come anymore.”
Comment: Where the promotion of bicycles overshoots the mark
Protest, existential worries, fundamental changes in the district: Did the city councilors expect all these consequences when they decided with a very large majority in 2019 to convert Frankfurt into a bicycle city? Probably not. Finally, the negative side effects of transformation are not of God. They are consequences of the way those responsible in Römer implement change on the street.
The central argument of the cyclists: After decades of preferring the car on the streets, they now have to be given more space. That’s true, but it’s too one-dimensional. Pedestrians also deserve more space, and it would be most important for trains and buses, as they carry the largest number of people to get around in an environmentally friendly way. In the Oeder Weg, however, there is “only” a route that is pleasant for cyclists. Yes, the planners also create more quality of stay. However, this does not slow down the probably unwanted part of the development, but actually strengthens it: Due to the lack of accessibility by car and the lack of parking spaces, the Oeder Weg becomes unattractive for shop customers from further away, but all the more attractive for restaurant guests from the surrounding area. A shopping street radiating out into the surrounding area is thus shrunk into a supply street for the district.
Well: Urban planning can of course have something like that as a goal, of course. It is at least questionable that this would be wanted here. At least that’s not what the city officials ordered. With their blocking for cars, the makers are definitely overshooting the mark. If they don’t change course quickly, it could be catastrophic for this retail location.
And if they don’t learn the right lessons, things will soon start to look bleak for other Frankfurt shopping streets that have so far been colorful. (Dennis Pfeiffer-Goldmann)
Oeder way in Frankfurt: Many older customers no longer come
Older customers in particular did not switch to bicycles. “For many, public transport is not an alternative,” says Klöcker, because they do not want to carry heavy shopping far. With the car, however, it had “become very difficult”. Customers reported that after they couldn’t find a parking space on Oeder Weg or in the side streets, they drove away again. “They’re now shopping in the Main-Taunus-Zentrum,” says the bookseller. As the city always recommends, why not go to the multi-storey car park next door across the street? “It’s too narrow, many older people don’t dare to go in there,” Klöcker reported. Or it is often simply occupied because many parking spaces have been allocated to long-term tenants.
The city wants to continue the traffic test despite such problems. Wolfgang Siefert (Greens), the new head of the mobility department who has already been elected and will be in office from July, says he will be given extra scientific support. “We are waiting for the investigations before we make fundamental assessments”. The city wants to intercept the consequences of the diagonal barrier “with smaller measures”. He asks for patience. “It takes a year for people to get used to it.” The city is also receiving “a lot of positive feedback” on the redesign, says Siefert. But that is “depending on the range”.
The retailers confirm the latter. The gastronomy in particular benefits, says Susanne Bänfer. As a result, it will probably be louder for the Oeder-Weg residents in summer. “It’s going to be a party mile like on the squares in the north end,” estimates Maria Klöcker. And in the side streets, many more drivers were now looking for parking spaces.
In fact, city policy is changing the Oeder Weg from a shopping street with a variety of trades, says Klöckner. “It will be a food mile.” Bänfer fears that part of the city will die with it. “The many small shops are part of the culture.” (Dennis Pfeiffer-Goldmann)
