The focus of the redesign is primarily on improvements for pedestrians. The shopping street's footpaths and the roadway for motor vehicle traffic will be planned in such a way that pedestrians and cyclists will have enough space to travel safely and comfortably in future. The transition between the side areas and the traffic area is also to be designed with a "soft" separation (e.g. gutter) so that it will be possible to change sides of the street without barriers everywhere. The Rathaus streetcar stop is planned to be barrier-free on both sides. In consultation with the disabled community, the stops are to be equipped with a railing to the adjacent footpath. In addition to sufficient space for pedestrian traffic, the approved variant could include bicycle parking facilities, seating, tree beds and outdoor catering.
The costs for the redesign are currently estimated at just under four million euros. Due to the necessary relocation of the streetcar tracks, a planning approval procedure must be carried out. In addition, the council has decided to examine a 20 km/h zone (traffic-calmed area) on Friedrich-Breuer-Straße between Konrad-Adenauer-Platz and Doktor-Weis-Platz.
After a six-month test phase: traffic routing will be maintained for the time being
As part of a six-month test phase, the traffic routing in Friedrich-Breuer-Straße was temporarily adjusted between Konrad-Adenauer-Platz and Hans-Böckler-Straße at the beginning of June 2024. Since then, this section has been traffic-calmed and reserved for buses, streetcars, cabs, delivery traffic and cyclists. Other motor vehicles cannot use the road. The parking spaces for people with disabilities and cabs have been relocated to Rathausstraße.
The city of Bonn is currently evaluating the experiences and results of the test phase so far. To this end, it is being supported by a specialist office with traffic load figures, which are currently being evaluated. In order not to anticipate a political decision based on these figures, the current traffic routing will be maintained until the traffic load figures are available. These figures are necessary for a decision by the Beuel district council on whether to continue or withdraw the current traffic routing.
Survey on the experiences of citizens
In addition to looking at the key traffic figures, the city of Bonn would also like to get a picture of the public's opinion. To this end, a survey was conducted on the Bonn-Macht-Mit (opens in a new tab) participation platform during the test phase to identify the experiences of citizens on the topics of traffic routing, side spaces and street furniture. The experience gained from this survey, together with the findings from the traffic counts, will be incorporated into a proposal by the administration for future traffic routing. The administration is expected to present a corresponding proposal at one of the first two meetings of the Beuel district council in 2025.
City Terraces project
The Stadt-Terrassen (opens in a new tab) project from Zukunftsnetz Mobilität NRW supplemented the test phase for two months by upgrading the side areas. The administration wanted to show how the side areas of the street could be used in the future. Among other things, temporary street furniture, green boxes and other modules for redesigning the street space were set up on Friedrich-Breuer-Straße.
