“Driving a car is not a fundamental right”

Driving cars might be very dear to large parts of the German population, but it is not a fundamental right and can be harmful to health and environment, writes Svenja Bergt in an opinion piece in tageszeitung (taz). Instead of half-hearted diesel bans, she proposes private car bans for inner cities. “Delivery transport, street cleaners and ambulances fill up on green power. Bicycle rentals on every other street corner. Public transport every three minutes. Parks instead of parking. Then residents in towns in valley basins could breathe freely even at times of thermal inversions,” Bergt writes.

Read the opinion piece in German here.