June, 2024
On a street in the German city of Frankfurt am Main, there is a traffic sign every two meters. In total, tens of thousands of euros worth of right-of-way, warning and prohibition signs are involved.
At issue is the 1,100-meter-long, dead straight Grüneburgweg, which features traffic signs that are meaningful in themselves, but according to Germany's AutoBild are almost a caricature of German regulations in terms of their size and thoroughness. In addition to the traffic signs, there are dozens of signs providing information about places of interest and designations of other neighborhoods and parks.
"Motorists constantly ask me if they can stop here or there," Can Mahmut Badan, who runs a grocery store on Grüneburgweg, told AutoBild. "My answer: I am not the minister of transport." Motorists in particular are annoyed by the forest of signs, but - surprisingly - pedestrians are also displeased. "The signs are so close to the sidewalk that they make the sidewalks narrower," Badan said. He calls the traffic sign jungle "insane" and "confusing".
Bicycle street creates additional signs - That confusion has arisen in part because Grünebergweg was recently converted to 'Bicycle Street. To that end, cars are being banned as much as possible. Andreas Georg Dresch of wine store Westlage complains that the conversions endanger pedestrians and ultimately cyclists: "Zebra crossings have disappeared, pedestrians walk all over the street, and because so many parking spaces are missing, vendors stop along the road. That's dangerous for cyclists."
The green mobility department of Frankfurt's governing coalition is responsible for the bike lane and lush signage. Frankfurt traffic lawyer Uwe Lenhart calls the measures incorrect and even illegal. "The forest of signs is not in accordance with traffic regulations," he tells Bild Frankfurt. "Road signs should be designed so that they can be seen, understood and followed at a glance while driving."
Reference(s).. several media