“A document of missed chances”

Germany’s 270 billion-euro Federal Traffic Way Plan is a “document of missed chances”, says Georg Ehring in an opinion piece for national radio station Deutschlandfunk. Ehring says the plan fails to signal real change on how traffic is to be managed. Germany’s largest ever infrastructure investment will not alleviate pressure on the country’s roads, or launch a mobility system based on greater use of public transport, Ehring writes. Rather than substantially improving railways and inland waterway transport, Federal Transportation Minister Alexander Dobrindt has opted to perpetuate a mobility system centred on private vehicles, despite many people being “ready to switch” to less resource-intensive transport “if they had attractive alternatives,” Ehring says.