Popular initiative wants a Basel city centre without trams
Keystone-SDA
A non-partisan committee made up of people from politics and business wants a Basel city centre without trams. It launched an initiative under the name “Go Basel Go!” on Monday. It is calling for alternative tram routes outside the city centre.
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The canton should take the necessary measures to ensure that no public transport runs on the central city centre axis between Barfüsserplatz and Schifflände and that it is free of tram tracks, according to the text of the initiative. However, the public transport connection via Steinenberg, Kohlenberg and Schifflände must remain guaranteed.
The Marktplatz stop should be the only stop to be cancelled, the initiative committee wrote. Tram traffic could be routed via Petersgraben, Kohlenberg, Schifflände and bridges other than the Mittlere Brücke. This should make the tram network more reliable, as it will no longer come to a standstill so easily during demonstrations and events.
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Trees and fountains instead of tracks
The canton must transform the city centre axis into a “public space”, the text of the initiative continues. There should be space for trees, fountains and unpaved surfaces. The canton should build “concentrated bicycle parking facilities” so as not to impair the recreational area.
The committee proposes a car park at Barfüsserplatz, for example. Access should remain regulated for emergency services, delivery traffic and people with limited mobility.
The initiative committee is broadly supported. The board of the “Go Basel Go!” association of the same name includes parliamentarian Sibel Arslan, the architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, the entrepreneur Moritz Suter, politician Franz-Xaver Leonhardt and Mathias Böhm, managing director of Stadtkonzept Basel.
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Translated from German by DeepL/ts
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