Düsseldorf: Eco Lane out of force, will diesel driving bans be introduced for good?
Only a few days ago we reported in our daily Green-Zones Blog about the avoidable removal of the eco lane in Düsseldorf. But now, in one specific case, everything is happening much faster than expected.
They were the thorn in the side of commuters and residents: the three eco lanes in Düsseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia. Only recently, Jürgen Resch, managing director of the German Environmental Aid Organisation (DUH), made the sometimes surprising statement that there is no realistic future for the Düsseldorf special lanes. However, the DUH neither wants to cling to eco lanes nor force the state capital to continue to operate these lanes.
Verdi has announced warning strikes for today, in the course of which one of Düsseldorf's three environmental lanes will be deactivated for the duration of the entire Thursday (Werstener Str.). This means that the metropolis on the Lower Rhine will be able to rehearse the emergency today and test how it is possible to live without the tracks. The temporary suspension will encourage commuters to use the car when it comes to getting to their place of work; because nothing is possible in public transport today! For the Düsseldorf CDU, the plan to close one lane does not go far enough. Already on Tuesday, for example, the group called for all eco lanes in the city of the state capital to be closed to all urban traffic for the duration of today.
The fear in Düsseldorf that the dying of the eco lanes would inevitably result in the dreaded diesel driving bans being imposed on the metropolis has been growing since the statement by the DUH mentioned at the beginning that the eco lanes in Düsseldorf were not successful there, and is quite realistic.