Düsseldorf (dpa / lnw) – The Greens are opposed to a massive expansion of the Autobahn in North Rhine-Westphalia. “Anyone who still seriously wants to expand motorways or build new airports today, but who only sees cycle path infrastructure as a side note, has not recognized the signs of the times,” said North Rhine-Westphalian state chairman Tim Achtermeyer on Thursday of the German Press Agency in Düsseldorf .
Achtermeyer was reacting to a report by the news magazine “Spiegel”, according to which there should be a list of 144 expansion projects in the Federal Ministry of Transport – 60 of them, most of them in NRW. “The proposal by Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing is grotesque,” Achtermeyer accused the FDP politician. “The expansion of freeways in cities to up to ten lanes has nothing to do with climate protection or public safety. This only creates more traffic and CO2 emissions.”
At the same time, such mammoth projects blocked the renovation of critical roads and bridges – also in NRW. “If you prioritize everything, you prioritize nothing,” warned Achtermeyer. Instead, the focus must now also be on climate protection in order to quickly expand the rail and cycle path network as well as the charging infrastructure and to renovate existing roads and bridges.
