Subject: “Waiting for the twin”, post by Stefan Mertlik (Country and region, December 1)
It is a pity that you have been looking at this interesting topic almost exclusively from the perspective of the drivers and transport policies which have contributed greatly to the climate crisis and continue to do so. The VCD’s arguments in favor of the lawsuit are presented only very briefly, but the counterarguments to his position are presented in detail. What is completely missing is the overview of the traffic situation in the region and the climate crisis. This must go beyond the old argument that where there is a lot of car traffic, roads need to be widened to restore the flow of car traffic. Just like the city highway through Freiburg, which is still in demand by many, the planned bridge will perhaps relieve car traffic in a limited area, but will certainly lead to a further increase in car and truck traffic in the sensitive Upper Black Forest. And this then makes further expansion measures necessary. Both projects would not only eat up large sums of money, which are missing, for example, from the expansion of the Breisgau S-Bahn or the Rhine Valley Railway, but the ecological consequences would also be enormous. The construction requires huge amounts of concrete and steel, which are also not exactly produced in a climate-neutral way. Increased CO2 emissions, exhaust gases and noise pollution in the High Black Forest are the consequences of such oversized and outdated projects. U-turn looks different. Why aren’t the regional council (Mrs Schäfer is a Green Party) and the region finally campaigning to ensure that the transit traffic of trucks in particular gets out of the Black Forest and that investments are made quickly in the further expansion of the public transport instead of on new roads? This would provide relief to local residents relatively quickly and would not add to the problem. Hannes Linck, Freiburg
