As Nettavisen wrote this weekend, deputy leader Arild Hermstad in the Green Party (MDG) the state to scrap one of the main shipping lanes for car traffic in central Oslo. It makes the Progress Party react strongly.
– For us, it is of course completely unacceptable. It is a very important thoroughfare, says Frp’s group leader in Oslo City Council, Camilla Wilhelmsen, to Nettavisen.
The road in dispute is Ring 1, which connects the traffic between east and west in the capital. The main shipping lane runs during the government quarter, and the Hammersborg tunnel will now be lowered by ten meters to improve safety in the new government quarter.
The price tag, which also deals with the upgrade of the Vaterland tunnel, is more than NOK 3.1 billion.
– It is an incredibly expensive project that will cost many billions of kroner, which actually cements a poor urban development in Oslo. Therefore, we ask the government to drop the whole project, said Hermstad to Nettavisen on Saturday.
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– Typical MDG
Wilhelmsen completely disagrees with his political opponent.
– You might say that it is typically MDG, but it does not hang on. Amputating Ring 1 will not lead to a more pleasant city as Hermstad says, it will lead to more traffic in the side streets – because the traffic will not disappear, she says.
At the same time, the FRP politician points out that much of the traffic that is in the center of Oslo, in any case, is commercial traffic that is needed to deliver goods and services, and public transport that transports people.
– There are not enough parking spaces left, so there is not much of the private car left in the center of Oslo anymore, she states.
– But you have the E18 and the Opera Tunnel, so you can drive there?
– You can, but everything is connected to everything. You will get very large detours, and you have traffic coming from the west and north, and then the road will start on the side roads where there are residential areas – and it is much worse, Wilhelmsen thinks.
She therefore warns against scrapping one of the city’s three ring roads.
– The road is part of an important system that has been established in Oslo, to ensure accessibility for vehicles, she says.
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– Roads must go
MDG in the city council has already made it more difficult to drive in the center of Oslo, and has removed around 5,000 parking spaces in the city center streets. And now the environmental party will go even further.
– There is no doubt that the car provides poor urban space where it goes, and then you should look at how to remove the traffic instead, Hermstad pointed out in the interview, and added:
– The City Council of Oslo has a fairly ambitious goal of reducing traffic by 30 percent by 2030, and then it is clear that some roads must go away if we are to succeed.
But Wilhelmsen believes that removing roads will be the wrong way to go.
– In some places you can of course make a pedestrian street stump where it fits in the center of Oslo, but that’s not what he’s talking about here, it’s a thoroughfare. The consequences will be great, she fears.
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FNB: – Will split Oslo in two
Party leader Cecilie Lyngby in the People’s Party (FNB), formerly the toll party, is also not gracious to the MDGs’ proposal.
– MDG shows once again that they have a destructive and lifeless attitude to travel and transport. If this important road is closed to cars and other transport, it means that Oslo will be divided in two, which will be reminiscent of the terrible wall in Berlin, Lyngby tells Nettavisen.
She believes Ring 1 is a very important road system that makes Oslo work.
– Having said that, that MDG comes up with such wild proposals is because the greens want the least possible traffic in Oslo, so everything that is arranged for the car is in their eyes a waste of money, she says.
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– Living indo not close
If the road cannot be scrapped, Hermstad believes that it should be scaled down and closed to private cars anyway.
“One should at least look at a sharp downscaling, where one can get through some buses and where one looks at the necessity of the number of fields and speed,” he told Nettavisen.
However, the Ministry of Transport, which is responsible for the billion plans, completely disagrees.
– The Norwegian Public Roads Administration and Statsbygg have made a thorough assessment of closing the Hammersborg and Vaterland tunnels on Ring 1, among other things in collaboration with the emergency services and the urban environment department in Oslo municipality. The professional advice is clear that Ring 1 should not be closed, says State Secretary Mette Gundersen to Nettavisen.
According to her, it will entail major traffic challenges if the road is scrapped, with increased load on the side roads.
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