Traffic-calmed area in front of rescue station: City of Fulda moves sign

1. Fulda Newspaper
2. Fulda

Status: 10.09.2024, 12:31

From: Sebastian Reichert

The city of Fulda has moved a sign that marked a traffic-calmed area directly in front of an emergency station by about 25 meters.

Fulda – The DRK Fulda and the city of Fulda announced this in a joint press release on Tuesday (September 10). Recently there had been great anger over the play street regulation directly in front of the rescue station on St. Laurentius Street in Fulda.

“The city of Fulda and the DRK are pulling together to optimize the rescue station of the German Red Cross (DRK) Fulda in Fulda’s St. Laurentius Street,” was the first sentence in the press release issued on Tuesday by the DRK Fulda and the city of Fulda.

Traffic-calmed area in front of rescue station: City of Fulda moves sign

As early as 2022, the city of Fulda had – it continues – created a direct access and exit to Sickelser Strasse, which shortened the travel times of emergency vehicles by 50 seconds – “a period of time that, in an emergency, can decide the life and death of emergency patients.”

“We are very grateful to the German Fire Brigade Museum and the German Fire Brigade Association for making the area required to build the road available at the request of the city,” emphasised Fulda’s mayor Dr. Heiko Wingenfeld (CDU).

Around 98 percent of all DRK emergency journeys now take place via this direct connection to Sickelser Strasse. The section of the traffic-calmed area of ​​St. Laurentius Strasse in the vicinity of the fire brigade museum will now be optimized so that the DRK emergency vehicles no longer have to lose any time here either.

The city of Fulda is now located on the sign that marks a traffic-calmed area directly in front of the rescue station, about 25 meters away. In the next few days, the sign, which was initially moved, will be permanently anchored. When exiting via St. Laurentius Street, the emergency vehicles no longer have to drive through a “traffic-calmed area.”

The city of Fulda also puts up no parking signs

In the no longer “traffic-calmed area” of St. Laurentius Street, a number of no-parking signs have also been put up. Mayor Wingenfeld and the head of the Office for Road Traffic and Parking, Thomas Flügel, as well as the chairman of the board of the DRK district association in Fulda, Christoph Schwab, are today convinced of the “effectiveness of the measures”.

According to the DRK and the city, an initial on-site meeting with the head of the traffic department, Mayor Dag Wehner, took place in mid-July in an immediate response to a request from the DRK. Even then, details and questions that had arisen in practice at the exit from the DRK property to the traffic-calmed area were discussed.

“In principle, the duty of care also applies to drivers of emergency vehicles when exiting such property – regardless of whether there is a traffic-calmed area, a 30 km/h zone as before or a road of another category,” the press release states.

The city and the German Red Cross Fulda also clarified the term by saying that a traffic-calmed area is not a “play street”. “A traffic-calmed area, often incorrectly referred to colloquially as a play street, is a street or traffic area in Germany marked with traffic sign 325.1 (blue rectangular sign with symbols for residential buildings, pedestrians, cars and children).”

The area is designed to reduce traffic in built-up areas. The traffic-calmed area must be designed in such a way that the typical character of a street with a carriageway, sidewalk and cycle path does not prevail. This is usually achieved by leveling the area (paving), among other things.

“The traffic-calmed area is not to be confused with the actual play street, which is currently being implemented only for a limited period of time,” the press release states. “There is no such play street in the city of Fulda that is closed to all types of vehicles.”