The Mayor of Lustenau, Kurt Fischer, and environmental activist Eugen Schneider exchanged their thoughts on this and also found common ground.
Does the connection option from southern Lustenau towards Switzerland proposed by the Austrian Environment Minister Leonore Gewessler make sense or not? How can the traffic-plagued population be helped as quickly as possible? What are the prospects for comprehensive long-term solutions? The topic of traffic has many facets that can be assessed differently.
It became obvious that Schneider fundamentally rejects the CP variant in the east of the municipality and that Fischer is not impressed either. But the 1.3 variant with a transition from Austria to the Schmitten/Diepoldsau area separated the ghosts.
Eugen Schneider welcomes Gewessler’s move. “Because the soil consumption is much lower, the sealing of soil is manageable and we could avoid a traffic suction effect like the CP.”
Fischer could not follow this argument. “It’s the umpteenth variant that suddenly appears. And the Swiss neighbors, on whose ground this route would be located, know nothing about it.” In general, the people in Lustenau would no longer believe in a comprehensive solution to the traffic problem. “I’m practically a contemporary witness. I experienced the planning process in Mobil-im-Rheintal and now we have this situation.” In view of the situation, he had to “learn hope again,” admitted the mayor.
Schneider does not want to see the result of the years of planning process set in stone. “You can’t say that what was true ten years ago is still the case today. Things change and you have to take that into account. Discussions must always be possible.”
immediate measures
His group has no intention of demonstrating in the near future. “We’d rather tape ourselves in front of the customs office to protest against the conditions there,” said the pensioner.
The busy customs office and the need to build a new bridge also brought him closer to the mayor of Lustenau. “We will certainly not accept that another bridge is built with the same capacity that would cement the current intolerable state,” Fischer made clear.
Fischer and Schneider agree on the need for immediate measures to relieve the population. “The state and the community could have done something long ago. The federal government is not responsible everywhere and for everything. Only nothing has happened in this regard.”
Fischer spoke out in favor of measures such as a speed limit of 40 km/h in built-up areas. He also calls for a speed reduction on the periphery for trucks.
Criticism from Switzerland
Schneider does not want to attach too much importance to the Swiss reactions to the proposal for a connection solution in southern Lustenau. “It shouldn’t be about who said something and when that doesn’t suit the other person. It’s about the content.”
At least the responsible government councilor from the canton of St. Gallen, Susanne Hartmann, sees it completely differently: “As the project partners involved, we were alienated when it came to the content and timing of the communication.”
The entire broadcast
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