[ad_1]
The planned lane reduction by Council Member Richard Wolff (al.) At Bellerivestrasse would exacerbate the congestion situation. This is demonstrated by two studies that have been kept under lock and key. Therefore, it is clear that Wolff was not so strict with the facts.
Bellerivestrasse cannot have two lanes without losing performance. The latter means nothing more than traffic jams.
In early September, Zurich’s director of civil engineering, Richard Wolff (al.), Literally blew up a passing traffic policy bomb. During an appearance in the parliament of the city of Zurich, he announced that next April Bellerivestrasse would be temporarily reduced from four to two lanes, one for each direction of travel. The announcement surprised numerous travelers. The Bellerivestrasse is the main axis of incidence from the Costa Dorada towards the city. The prospect of traffic jams to the city limits of Zollikon aroused discontent.
Angry associations
The fact that Wolff had not brought anyone on the scene, not the councilors of the responsible commission, not the members of a working group that had been working for a long time on solutions for the Bellerivestrasse in need of renovation, also caused a dispute. . ACS and TCS, the cantonal and municipal trade associations, as well as the Seefeld trade association, ended their cooperation after Wolff went ahead. The canton also reacted coldly: it noted that the permanent removal of the lane should be approved by the governing council.
The attempt should be limited to half a year. No bigger problems expected, Wolff said at the local council: The real bottleneck is in Bellevue anyway. Words that many distrusted: Wolff, however, referred to traffic studies.
Lane reduction equals performance reduction
In fact, the civil engineering department has commissioned studies from two traffic planning offices, the content of which was previously unknown and which the “Tages-Anzeiger” has now obtained based on the information and data protection law. The reports are also available for NZZ. They show that Wolff’s description was imprecise to say the least. Reports clearly indicate that continuous lane reduction is not possible without impacting performance. The reports are based on traffic flow simulation programs, among other things based on traffic count data.
Planners divide Bellerivestrasse into three sections: city limits to Horneggstrasse, Horneggstrasse to Kreuzstrasse, Kreuzstrasse to Bellevue. In the middle section, two-lane traffic management is possible without loss of performance, but not in the other, according to the B + S AG report. But even in the middle section, this would only be the case with noises. “The traffic situation is very busy. Consequently, even minor interruptions can lead to situations with long delays. “
Wolff’s idiosyncratic reading
The phrase with the bottleneck referred to by Wolff is found in the second report of the company EBP Schweiz AG: Bellevue is decisive for the effectiveness of the general system of Bellerivestrasse. According to Wolff, this means that the degradation would not have a major impact. But this very conclusion is refuted just a few lines later in the report. “A reduction in the lanes between Kreuzstrasse and Bellevue leads to a traffic collapse, as there is not enough storage space for the Bellevue backwater and drainage at Bellevue cannot be guaranteed.” Then the storage space would be destroyed. It is suggested in the B + S report that this could be counteracted by measuring traffic on the outskirts, but this is not easily possible.
Conclusion: In any case, lane reduction without traffic collapse is only conceivable from Kreuzstrasse and only up to Horneggstrasse. At most, a three-lane regime between Bellevue and Kreuzstrasse would be possible, because there one lane outside the city could be removed, but according to the B + S report, this would pose new problems. The plan to smoothly continue the cycle route, which today ends at Bellevue from Quaibrücke, has therefore been questioned.
Because that was the idea: create a bike lane on the removed tracks. For years, red-green politicians have been calling for a continuous cycle route in the lake basin. They had rejected a suggestion from Wolff’s predecessor Filippo Leutenegger (n.d.): This would have been done without removing the track, but the trees would have to be felled and there is a bottleneck lurking in the pump station restaurant.
In this context, it is interesting to see how the EBP report assesses the attractiveness of a cycle lane rather than the car lane on Bellerivestrasse. The many traffic lights, especially towards the city center, force cyclists to stop frequently. And: With Mühlebachstrasse and Dufourstrasse, “relatively attractive parallel axes” are available.
Councilman Wolff declined to comment on the studies when asked. The civil engineering department announced that Wolff was seeking “a discussion with the governing council and other people involved.” This process has just begun.
