Berlin could be car -free through referendum in a few years

The “Volksenscheid Berlin car -free” initiative can continue to pursue your legislative proposal for a extensive car ban in the capital. The Berlin Constitutional Court declared the application to be admissible to initiate the referendum.

In the summer of 2021, the initiative collected more than 50,000 signatures for the initiation of a corresponding referendum for the turn of traffic. In this first phase of the referendum, 20,000 valid votes were necessary. But the next collective step did not occur: the Senate gave the goal of constitutionally questionable in a bill and intervened by the constitutional court.

The judges should check whether such a referendum would be permitted at all. Berlin’s highest court now contradicted the Senate’s assessment. The draft law is therefore compatible with the Berlin constitution, the Basic Law and Federal Law. The state legislator has a freedom of design under road law, said court president Ludgera Selting. There is no entitlement that a certain use of the street space will be maintained. “The road network is still available to people,” said Salting.

The President emphasized that the court did not decide whether Berlin would be car -free. The judges would only have to judge whether the draft law was due to the legal limits. The decision was made significantly in a voice when eight. A judge wrote a special vote.

According to the plans of the initiative, almost all roads within the S-Bahn ring should be declared “author-reduced roads” after a transition period of four years. Private car journeys should only be possible up to twelve times a year per person.

There should therefore be exceptions to the factual car ban for people with disabilities, police, emergency services, fire brigade, garbage disposal, taxis as well as economic and delivery traffic. This also applies to buses.

The court came to the conclusion that the draft is compatible with the Berlin constitution, the Basic Law and Federal Law. This means that the initiative is a significant step further.

It can initiate the next phase of the referendum. The signatures of at least seven percent of Berliners must be collected within four months. That is currently around 170,000 people.

If this succeeds, a referendum would follow, in which, as in the case of an election, the bill would be coordinated. The referendum would be successful and would put the law into force if a majority of voters and at the same time have agreed at least a quarter of all voters.