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The emerging bike lanes in Berlin that were established during the Corona crisis may remain for now. The Higher Administrative Court (OVG) ruled in favor of the Berlin Senate on Tuesday, temporarily reversing a lower court decision that the makeshift bike paths should have been removed.
Administrative court judges had raised serious doubts about the legality of these cycle lanes in September. Bicycle lanes should only be arranged where there are specific indications of traffic hazards and where they are absolutely necessary. These were not presented properly by the Senate Administration.
The Berlin Senate had filed a complaint against this decision in an urgent procedure, but the OVG has not yet decided. However, as long as the bike lanes can remain, the court ruled.
Consequently, the Senate has produced the necessary documents. This included traffic counts and accident statistics. “Taking into account these documents, the decision of the administrative court was probably incorrect in the result,” the OVG now announced. The separation of bicycle and road traffic favors the safety of road users.
The Greens celebrated the decision:
In April, the Senate and districts suddenly began marking so-called pop-up bike lanes in parking lanes or car lanes and putting up appropriate signs. In many places, the roads were separated by warning beacons. This was justified by the corona pandemic. Many Berliners do not have a car and the buses and trains are too narrow.
AfD MP and transport politician Frank Scholtysek sued in June against eight new short-term cycle lanes in Kreuzberg, Friedrichshain, Schöneberg and Charlottenburg.
