Repair of a car-friendly town – the example of Pforzheim

To this day, Pforzheim suffers from being a car-friendly town. And Pforzheim exists almost everywhere – to a lesser or greater degree. The repair of the car-friendly town is undertaken to enhance urban quality – this is what the Town is working on. The access road to the Schlossberg is just one example. It dominates the Schlossberg, the central feature of the town, and interferes with the topographically, historically, and culturally sensitive area; it is a foreign body in the layout of the town. Every day, approx. 13,500 vehicles use the Schlossberg access road, including 150 local transport buses.

The town is developing a wider inner ring road, but has hitherto held on to the Schlossberg access road as part of the Parkring circular road. In 2012, the justification for the access road was questioned during a workshop procedure. Giving up the road would lead to increased traffic volumes on the inner city ring and longer routes for the local buses. However, the additional loads and distances are manageable. The longer line routes for the buses were raised as an objection by the operators, even though they lead to an improvement in access to the town centre. The planning approach, the political will, the participation of stakeholder groups, and the enormous urban design opportunities led to success – an encouraging example also for other towns.