Berlin’s local legislators have a plan to turn the city’s most famous boulevard—Unter den Linden—into a car-free pedestrian space, but it’s not clear that even organizations representing pedestrians are on board with that.
According to the newspaper Berliner Zeitung, the councillors’ aim is to show that Berlin is serious about changing transportation, reducing traffic and encouraging visitors and locals to walk. They take inspiration from car-free moves in Paris and the creation of pedestrian spaces in New York’s Times Square area.
But Unter den Linden, which runs from the Brandenburg Gate to the Berlin Cathedral and museums on Museum Island, is also an important artery, and it’s not clear where those cars might be diverted, or whether private cars might be banned altogether.
Merchants in the area have concerns that they will lose access, and that the area might turn into an event space that would not help their businesses. The merchant group’s director believes it’s for outsiders: “For whom are we doing all this? It’s not about the Berliners.”
And the director of the Association for Foot Traffic (whose initials in German make the acronym FUSS, or FOOT) says that his group has no objection to cars crossing the street or using it, but he is in favor of a more attractive median and wider walkways.
