History and background of the traffic concept Vauban
The “Reichsgaragenordnung of 1939” was intended to ensure that parking spaces were made available to potential vehicle owners at each residential building. At the time, the construction of a garage space was required for each residential unit. Background was the introduction of the Volkswagen. The coupling of the parking space to the construction of an apartment was a key to the car-friendly city in Germany.
Even when choosing a residential location, the type and extent of local mobility offers play a decisive role. At home, most everyday routines begin or end. Every day at home, decisions are made about choosing the right means of transport. All good reasons to pay special attention to the topic “Housing + Mobility” and thus to the Quiescent Traffic when planning a quater like Vauban.
Car parking spaces and thus your own car, are so far co-financed by those who either do not want to have their own car or can not afford such a car. The parking space in front of or below your own apartment makes people to motorists. Approximately 30-50% of households living in urban areas do not have their own car, but they need to co-finance the property’s own car parking infrastructure (underground or open parking) either through renting a flat or buying an apartment! For example, we often allow cars in underground garages more space than children’s rooms. This can be changed with the management of public and private parking spaces in district garages. Anyone who uses a car should in future also carry the corresponding parking space costs (rent). Car parking spaces no longer belong to the ownership of an apartment, but to the use of a car.
“We need a city where we no longer need the car,” said President Maria Krautzberger of the Federal Environment Agency (UBA) in an interview with Spiegel online on 17.12.2015.
The first ideas for the car-reduced traffic concept for the Freiburg district of Vauban were already developed more than 20 years ago on the basis of the above connections. Many other initiatives for car-free or car-reduced neighborhoods in Germany, the Netherlands and Austria date back to this time.
A market survey published in 1998 on the demand for “car-free” quarters already proved for Cologne early on a surprisingly high demand for car-free or low-car quarters for the then authors (Stadt Köln 1998). There is no reason that you can not accept this need for many other cities.
In the meantime, almost all of the quarters planned at that time are occupied and a few (mostly carried out or commissioned by the residents themselves) provide evidence of the extraordinary satisfaction of living in these neighborhoods.
The transport concept in Vauban has been decided, albeit by a narrow majority, in the local council with the adoption of the development plan. From the approval one could have deduced that now also the city administration in Freiburg contributes its part to support the concept and lead to success. However, this is still very hesitant to date, especially in the enforcement of the rules of “car-free living” and the prevention of false parking.
At the beginning of 1999, the first new buildings were moved to Vauban. Since then, there are nearly 20 years of experience with the traffic concept at Vauban. A first interim balance, funded by the German Foundation for the Environment, took place in 2003 in cooperation with the Öko-Institut and the DLR. A result can be perceived directly in the Vauban: the street scene on Vauban is characterized by children playing not cars. ? This could only be achieved because
- the degree of motorisation in Vauban is only 150 cars / 1000 inhabitants (approx. 3300 inhabitants in spring 2003).
- The residents of Vauban are not predominantly families that have not owned a car for a long time.
- Of the non-car respondents, 57% said they did not stop their car until they moved into Vauban, and another 16% within the last 5 years before moving in. Thus, with most residents with or shortly before the move into Vauban a drastic change in the mobility behavior has taken place! The approach of promoting car-free households actively (inter alia through financial relief) has proven itself!
- The car-sharing offer is well received above average (in 39% of the households surveyed, one or more people are users of this offer).
- Around 350-400 car-free households on Vauban now have 12 car-sharing cars.
- 81% of car-free households surveyed indicated on a five-point scale that organizing their everyday lives without your own car very light or easy
Living without your own car, free of parking space, car-free – what does that mean?
Legal framework
In Vauban, as in any other development area, dwellings may only be constructed in accordance with the state building regulations if parking spaces are detected in accordance with the valid development plan. In the Vauban one parking space per apartment is to prove, no matter how many cars are used by a household. In other cities, for reasons of transport policy, there is now a significant deviation from this rule. The aim is to reduce urban traffic, to motivate residents to do without their own car by missing parking facilities. To such a way one could not penetrate in Freiburg so far.
The social aspect of the car-reduced/-free model
In the vacant space of the Vauban people – for the first time in Germany – as long as they live car-free from the obligation to set up a car parking space freed (“suspension of Stellplatzbaupflicht”). This source-related cost saving relieves carless households of the financing of parking spaces that they do not need. The car-free concept also benefits car owners financially, as it required fewer roads. As a result, the development costs that impacted real estate prices could be significantly lower than in conventionally planned neighborhoods.
The proof of a car parking space in Vauban
The above-mentioned necessary parking space verification for an apartment can be done in Vauban in three different ways:
In the areas designated as “space-free”:
- By buying a parking space in the district garage (now more than 20,000, – €) or
- by conclusion of a contract with the association for car-free living e.V., payment of one
one-time fee of € 3,700 and annual “car-clarification” fee. The association leads in return on his property (at the Weidenpalast) the parking space.
In the areas not designated as “vacant space”:
- by building a parking space on their own property. With the density of the development in Vauban this is possible almost everywhere only in underground garages.
The concept of “parking space-free / car-free” is thus only the necessary solution / answer to the federal state regulations. These were not made to reduce car traffic, but to provide sufficient parking spaces in the cities. The actual goal of the concept in the Vauban is and was to minimize the traffic in the district. This is not least expressed in the car explanation. It states: “The owner (s) of the apartment commit / undertake … not to use a vehicle in such a way that he / she triggers / initiates a regular entry and exit to / from the district of stadtteil-vauban (car-free living). He / she also undertakes to ensure that all other residents of the apartment refrain from using a car in this way. “
Number of parking spaces
Based on the original concept (1997), 2000 apartments would have approx. 2000 parking spaces have to be built (student village and SUSI unconsidered). In addition, about 190 public managed parking spaces should come. With the plots on land in the commercial sector that should therefore be about 2300 parking spaces.
Thanks to the traffic concept at Vauban, this number has been significantly reduced. For example, there are now around 470 parking spaces in the two district garages for the parking space and nearly 400 underground parking spaces outside this area. In addition, there are about 220 public parking spaces for visitors along Vaubanallee, Lise-Meitner, Clara-Immerwahr and Marie-Curie-Straße as well as about 100 places for commercial enterprises on their properties. All in all about 1200 places without those in the student village and at SUSI.
The space saved for the conventional concept of about 1000 parking spaces not only benefits those who do not want their own car, but all Vauban residents.
Much more car-free than expected
Initially, the city administration assumed that at most 60-100 households would conclude a contract with the “Association for car-free housing (car-free club)”. However, this assessment soon turned out to be urgently in need of revision due to high demand. At that time, however, the two parking garages (“solar garage” and “glass garage”) were already firmly planned – essentially for the then presumed need of the administration of the 1st marketing section (Gerda-Weiler-, Rahel-Varnhagen- and Heinrich-Mann- Street) of 430 parking spaces. So, out of necessity, they made a virtue and expanded the area in which parking spaces were not to be found on their own property, but in the parking garages on Harriet-Straub, Adinda-Flemmich, Georg-Elser and Kurt-Tucholsky-Straße in the 2nd marketing section.
In the car-free contract is stipulated that the car-free club contractors who do not want to live without their own car or can provide a parking space (for a fee) must be available. For this purpose, the association has acquired a land designated for this purpose in the west of the district. Since the beginning of marketing, about 475 households have signed a contract with the association and committed themselves to “living without their own car”. Meanwhile, 45 households have given up the “car-free living.” As long as there are still seats available in the car parks, the car-free club can dismiss the corresponding households from their contracts as soon as they have bought a parking space in one of the two garages However, there are only a few places left, so that this opportunity is not long and on the “car parking lot” parking spaces must be prepared.The parking spaces can be initially manufactured at ground level and if the area should not be sufficient, automatic parking towers would be built Parking towers today even the city administration points out that their construction in
very unlikely for the foreseeable future. From the point of view of AK Verkehr, however, the first real parking space on the “car-free property” would be a very decisive additional parking space and a completely wrong signal. In order to prevent the club from having to set up parking spaces on its property, he is in the process of organizing a parking space pool.
| Zugänge | Abgänge | Stand autofr. Wohnungen: | |
| 1998 | 119 | 0 | 119 |
| 1999 | 7 | -1 | 125 |
| 2000 | 138 | -3 | 260 |
| 2001 | 71 | -2 | 329 |
| 2002 | 50 | -12 | 367 |
| 2003 | 3 | -5 | 365 |
| 2004 | 9 | -10 | 364 |
| 2005 | 51 | -7 | 408 |
| 2006 | 35 | -9 | 434 |
| 2007 | 3 | -2 | 435 |
| 2008 | 1 | -3 | 433 |
| 2009 | 7 | -3 | 437 |
| 2010 | 3 | -2 | 438 |
| 2011 | 4 | -11 | 431 |
| 2012 | 3 | -4 | 430 |
| 2013 | 2 | -7 | 425 |
| 2014 | 0 | -5 | 420 |
| 2015 | 0 | -7 | 413 |
| 2016 | 1 | -1 | 413 |
Role model of the traffic concept Vauban?
The model district Vauban enjoys above all the city limits the highest reputation in Germany and abroad. His role model function has not least to do with the reduction of car traffic in the district. However, as a civic prank, both the many residents and visitors perceived the approx. 300 underground parking spaces at the western end, at Astrid-Lindgren-Straße and Buckweg, outside of the parking space-free area. In particular, because the cars that park there, essentially drive past the houses of people and burden them with traffic committed to living without their own car and the avoidance of traffic in the Vauban.
Selected citations for the development of the traffic concept “Stellplatzfrei / Autofrei” on Vauban Gemeinderats-PRINT SESSION G 97097 from 26.05.1997 to the development plan
“3. Parking in the 1st marketing section
3.1 Parking space requirements, garage sizes, security
An important parameter for the location decision, size and number of the necessary district garages is the parking space requirement. Optimistic forecasts that a higher proportion of car-free households will arrive at the Vauban site than Freiburg’s average (30%) have been refuted by the land applicants. The share is currently at 20%.
As a result, 430 parking spaces need to be built immediately in the first marketing section for the three parking lots and their use in the east bar on Merzhauser Strasse. For another 40 parking spaces of car-free households, there must be reserve areas. The second car problem is not included in these figures. (…) ”
“3.2 Dependencies between the marketing and the decision on the parking Before the sale of the land, the cost of parking must be sufficiently determinable and assigned a secure planning location. The costs must be the same at both locations in the 1st marketing phase. Therefore, different expensive parking systems are eliminated. This also applies to the follow-up costs. Therefore, it is not practicable to offer conventional and automatic garages as an alternative. ”
Municipal PRINCESS G-00 / 095.1 of 03.05.2000 (pdf7313.pdf)
“The building department vehemently opposed the favored” Vauban-free “concept by Forum Vauban and urgently advised against extending this experimental model to the first three residential areas along the Vaubanallee of the first marketing section, but for now limiting the experiment to a living hobby , Above all, a considerable impediment to the marketing of the properties was feared.
In several controversial deliberations in the community working group Vauban, in the building committee and finally in the local council itself, the described course of the administration, first in a demarcated area with the free parking concept to collect experiences, as well as the question of the number of quarter garages (of the administration had proposed 3 garages) and the location of the first district garage, which was originally to be built on Vaubanallee and not on Merzhauser Strasse. The marketing of residential land in the first phase of the marketing has not been negatively affected by the political decision. The demand for building land was far greater than the supply. Against this background, in the second marketing section for the local four construction sites, the parking space freedom was also anchored in the development plan. “(…)
“In the first marketing phase, 118 households opted for parking space-free and 147 car-free. This corresponds to a ratio of 44.7% to 55.3%. “The complete printed matter can be downloaded at: www.freiburg.de
(Council Information System of the City of Freiburg im Breisgau)