Bavaria: Building with wood is put on an equal footing with other building materials
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The new version of the Bavarian Building Code will make it easier to build with wood in the future. In future, it can be used in all building classes. Schreyer: "With this, we are making wood significantly more attractive as a building material and thus making construction more sustainable." The Council of Ministers passed the amendment in its session today. Now it is the turn of the state parliament.
It will also be more favorable for developers. The new Bavarian building code, for example, allows local authorities to regulate parking space requirements more flexibly because they can, for example, take alternative mobility concepts into account.
The amendment to the building regulations goes back to the housing summit of 11 September 2019, and takes into account key results of an extensive survey among housing associations, the construction industry and municipal umbrella organisations, as well as an expert hearing held by the Bavarian State Parliament on 22 October 2019.
Photo: Peter und der Wolf Communications GmbH / LHM
At a press conference today, Lord Mayor Dieter Reiter, together with City Planning Councillor Professor Dr. (l) Elisabeth Merk, presented an overall plan for Munich's mobility in the coming decades.
Where could new underground and tram lines be built, where could the new cycling expressways run, and where can people switch from their cars to environmentally conscious means of transport? The mobility of tomorrow will be characterised by an optimal interlocking of different forms of mobility - first and foremost an optimised and broadly developed public transport system, a wide network of cycle paths, new offers for commuters in so-called HOV lanes ("High-occupancy vehicle lanes"), dedicated bus lanes and clever mobility concepts in settlement development with innovative means of transport.
Not only population and economic growth pose major challenges for transport infrastructure and settlement development, but at the same time the urban goals for traffic safety ("Vision Zero"), the political and legal requirements for environmental and climate protection (air pollution control, CO2 neutrality) and technological progress (digitalisation and networking) must always be taken into account.
Mayor Dieter Reiter: "Only with a well-developed and, above all, cleverly networked mobility will we be able to master the great challenges. The overall concept published today contains many good ideas for the further expansion of our transport infrastructure. The backbone is, of course, local public transport, which we not only want to greatly expand, but also create further tangential and ring connections in its network. I see this look into the future as a good basis and impulse for further debates. However, the mobility of the future can only be successfully developed in cooperation with the Munich region. In recent years, the city council has passed several groundbreaking resolutions for well-connected, environmentally friendly and space-saving mobility. We want to continue this".
City Planning Councillor Professor Dr. (l) Elisabeth Merk. "In the overall concept, we want to bundle all important measures for sustainable transport planning. It is important to us that we tackle it together. In dialogue with citizens and stakeholders from the region".
Expansion of local public transport (ÖPNV)
Public transport is the backbone of sustainable mobility. To encourage even more people to switch from their cars to public transport, the service will be significantly improved - through the new main station, the second main line, new bus lanes, underground and tram lines, increased frequency, more reliability and comfort. The existing network will be decentralised by tangents and, where sensible, supplemented by innovative means of transport such as cable cars or on-demand services. The result is less congestion and freed-up space that can be used, for example, for lanes for express buses, cycle paths or as amenity spaces.
Improving the cycling infrastructure
Cycling in the city is becoming much safer and more attractive. The continuous and safe "Altstadt-Radlring" (Old Town Cycle Ring) demanded by the citizens' petition is being implemented step by step; every quarter, the city council also decides on a bundle of further measures to make the road network significantly more cycle-friendly. This means that the demands of the second citizens' petition "Radentscheid" will be largely realised by 2025. Munich's first cycle path from the Stachus in the direction of Garching and Unterschleißheim as well as five further star-shaped routes will connect the city centre with the surrounding area; a cycle ring connects several city districts.
New offers for the city-countryside commuter traffic
Work-related commuting between the city and the region is made easier: modern Park & Ride facilities are being built on the motorways and main access roads at the gates of the city. From there, express buses continue on to the city centre on separate lanes without traffic jams and loss of time. The occupancy rate of commuting cars is increased by allowing the bus lanes to be shared by vehicles with several occupants. These "high-occupancy vehicle lanes" are already successfully helping to reduce car traffic abroad. For the "first" and "last mile" to and from public transport stops, more sharing and on-demand services will be provided, for example call buses.
Car-reduced city centre
New parking regulations, fewer parking spaces, traffic-calmed zones and sustainable logistics concepts will reduce car traffic in the old town and city centre. The space thus freed up will benefit cycling, walking and public transport as well as the quality of stay and the green and open spaces that are so important for the urban climate. Necessary, unavoidable car journeys into the city centre will still be possible. However, it is primarily emission-free, innovative means of transport that will shape mobility here. Efficient city logistics concepts make delivery and loading traffic compatible.
Mobility concepts
When planning new neighbourhoods and urban renewal projects, mobility concepts are considered from the very beginning. The focus is on a lively, balanced structure of uses in which as many everyday needs as possible can be found in the immediate residential environment. Short distances, good internal and external access to the neighbourhood by public transport, car and bike sharing services enable people to live without their own cars and increase the quality of life.
Innovative means of transport
Mobility is strongly influenced by digitalisation and innovations. The City of Munich takes these up, plans ahead and is open to trends. Automated and connected driving is currently being researched together with partners from business, science and research; a cable car over the Frankfurter Ring is being studied for the north of Munich, which has heavy traffic. With all new technologies, the focus is on user needs.
On Wednesday, 12 February, the City Council will deal with other important resolutions on mobility in Munich in the Committee for Urban Planning and Building Regulations in addition to the draft resolution "Mobility Plan for Munich".
The new National Progress Report on the Implementation of the New Urban Agenda shows the state of sustainability in urban development in German municipalities. The report was prepared by the German Institute of Urban Affairs on behalf of the Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development (BBSR).
Berlin. Sustainability issues have become increasingly important in politics as well as in the public sphere in recent years. With the New Urban Agenda of the United Nations, there has been an international roadmap for more sustainability in urban development since 2016.
Through the New Urban Agenda, the Federal Republic of Germany has undertaken to submit a progress report on its implementation every four years. The aim is to document the areas in which German municipalities have achieved successes in terms of sustainability in recent years and where there is still room for improvement. In addition, it is intended to show what hinders the implementation of sustainability goals in the sense of the New Urban Agenda and the 2030 Agenda. The first progress report now available shows very clearly that in many German cities - regardless of size and location - the first steps have been taken towards a sustainable transformation. The report focuses on climate change and mobility as well as digitalisation as a cross-cutting issue.
The report and its indicator-based data analyses illustrate that municipalities' sustainability efforts vary widely. For example, some municipalities prepare inventories on the question of where municipal work can link to goals of the New Urban Agenda. Other municipalities produce detailed sustainability reports based on extensive monitoring of a wide range of indicators.
It is a challenge to try to do justice to this diversity of municipalities with standardized monitoring. Therefore, the monitoring process must be continuously developed in the future and embedded in the context of the sustainability efforts of the federal and state governments. However, there are considerable incompatibilities here - especially with regard to statistical collection methods and available data stocks. With regard to the cities and municipalities themselves, the first progress report on the New Urban Agenda also makes clear that it is often a lack of human resources that prevents municipalities from further expanding their sustainability activities. It also becomes clear that the different framework conditions - demographic, social, economic and fiscal - in the municipalities have a direct impact on the prioritization and implementation of sustainability activities.
Despite these methodological challenges, the systematic recording of sustainability activities in municipalities, as promoted by the New Urban Agenda, can hardly be underestimated. For in essence, it lays an important foundation stone for raising the awareness of the administration and the population for the important topic of sustainability.
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