Grumpiness is in the blood of Munich residents – and many new Munich residents are just as happy with this. Thomas Gottschalk is also annoyed about his new home.
In the latest episode of the podcast “Die Supernasen” (RTL Plus), Thomas Gottschalk sharply criticized the current traffic situation in Munich. In a conversation with comedian Mike Krüger, the former “Wetten, dass…?” presenter criticized the numerous construction sites and the reconstruction of the streets to facilitate bicycle traffic in his new place of residence.
Since the 2019 cycling referendum, the city has been making efforts to massively expand the cycle paths in the Isar metropolis, but work on some streets is progressing slowly. A problem that is now also troubling Gottschalk, a new resident of Munich: At the end of April, it became known that he and his partner Karina Mroß had bought a house in the municipality of Gräfelfing on the southwestern outskirts of Munich.
“I would have guessed that Munich could be the traffic jam capital of the nation,” said Gottschalk. He referred to the new bike paths, the construction and location of which would paralyze car traffic. Krüger agreed: “Cyclists are actually getting through better. That is the plan. The plan is that you should ride your bike and not your car – or the subway and S-Bahn.”
In the podcast, Gottschalk also criticized the extent of the reconstruction measures: “It is now the case that the cycle paths are wider than the car road. If you drive along Landsberger Straße, you drive slalom and you are quite horrified that you sometimes have to drive in the wrong direction.”
The moderator was particularly annoyed by the apparently uncoordinated construction work in the city: “In Munich there are an incredible number of construction sites where nothing is happening. There are these red and white beacons, but there are no workers to be seen.” He continued: “I have heard that some companies are grabbing these contracts but don’t know how to proceed because there aren’t enough tradesmen.”
In international comparison, Gottschalk believes that Germany is lagging behind when it comes to implementing construction projects: “In China, something like that would take maybe a year, in America maybe half a year – in Germany it can take seven years before an underpass is reopened. That’s unbelievable.”
He did not elaborate on which Munich construction project Gottschalk was referring to. However, the last part of the Sendlinger Tor underground station and Sendlinger Tor Square were recently reopened after seven years of renovation work.
