Uproar over master plan

FPÖ criticizes cycling plans: “Car drivers excluded”

Bike or car? For the St. Pölten FPÖ, the matter is clear: car drivers are being discriminated against.

(Bild: APA/Helmut Fohringer)

Around 700 measures in a 160-page concept are intended to encourage the people of St. Pölten to switch from cars to bikes. But the Freedom Party has had enough: "This is how you drive away all customers!"

It is not only FPÖ provincial deputy leader Udo Landbauer who is currently taking up the cudgels for car drivers - keyword: 150 km/h. The Freedom Party is also going on the offensive in the cities to defend themselves against "anti-car policies". Like now (again) in St. Pölten.

"But enough is enough now"
"It is positive that we have built many cycle paths in recent decades and that the town hall square has become car-free. But now it's enough," says City Councillor Klaus Otzelberger in response to the recently presented master plan for pedestrian and cycle traffic in the provincial capital. As reported, it contains almost 700 concrete measures to reduce car traffic.

Otzelberger criticizes the fact that car drivers - and therefore customers - are being excluded: "They are being driven into the shopping centers for good. The SPÖ apparently no longer wants stationary retail in the city center."

"No ban on cars"
Manuel Hammel from the St. Pölten traffic planning department emphasized at the presentation of the concept that the aim of the measures was not to ban car traffic. "Rather, we want to reduce dependence on the car. Walking and cycling are central elements of urban mobility," he emphasizes.