Hamburg (dpa/lno) – More than five years after Germany’s first driving ban for older diesel vehicles was issued, Hamburg is lifting the restrictions again. “The diesel traffic restrictions introduced in 2018 on Max-Brauer-Allee and Stresemannstrasse are no longer necessary to comply with limit values and will be lifted,” the environment and interior authorities announced on Tuesday. On Wednesday, Environment Senator Jens Kerstan (Greens) and Interior Senator Andy Grote (SPD) want to personally dismantle a traffic sign restricting diesel passage on Max-Brauer-Allee.
At the end of May 2018, Hamburg was the first city in Germany to impose diesel driving bans due to poor air quality. They applied to sections of two busy roads in the Altona-Nord district – but on one of them only for trucks – and affected all diesel engines that do not at least meet the Euro-6 emissions standard. On the one hand, this was a 580-meter-long section of Max-Brauer-Allee, and on the other hand, an approximately 1.6-kilometer-long section of Stresemannstrasse for trucks.
The ban on passage was preceded by long arguments, including in court. In May 2021 – the two transit bans had long been in force – the Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig decided that the city of Hamburg had to revise its air pollution control plan and consider further diesel driving bans. The federal judges had largely confirmed a previous ruling by the Hamburg Higher Administrative Court.
According to the environmental authority, Hamburg is now drawing up the third update of the air pollution control plan and is thus fulfilling the obligation to take a city-wide view of pollution from nitrogen dioxide (NO2). Kerstan wants to present the partial results on Wednesday. According to the Hamburg air measurement network, the limit values for nitrogen oxides of 40 micrograms per cubic meter of air were not exceeded on Max-Brauer-Allee and Stresemannstrasse in 2021 and 2022 or this year.
In 2017 things looked completely different. According to data from the Federal Environment Agency, Hamburg was in fifth place among cities with poor air quality in Germany, with a pollution level of 58 micrograms of nitrogen oxides per cubic meter of air. Nitrogen oxides can trigger or worsen respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. According to the Federal Environment Agency, traffic, including diesel cars in particular, accounts for more than 60 percent of the burden in cities.
© dpa-infocom, dpa:230912-99-166229/4
2023-09-12 18:54:11
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