From missing the point: increasing the speed limit instead of expanding public transport

The election manifestos of the negotiating parties already show a clear focus on road construction and the promotion of car traffic instead of prioritizing the expansion of public transport, cycle paths and footpaths.

The environmental protection organization warns that increased speed significantly increases the risk of accidents as well as noise and pollution for local residents. In addition, more pollutants that are harmful to health and the climate are emitted.

The signs of the times are pointing in exactly the opposite direction for the future. The expansion of public transport and better cycle paths and footpaths would fulfill them. The opposite would have fatal consequences.

Jasmin Duregger, climate and energy expert at Greenpeace in Austria:

"A speed limit of 150 km/h is a wrong turn in environmental policy. It puts human lives at risk and sacrifices environmental and climate protection. The advantages are hardly demonstrable, the disadvantages all the more so. Compared to 130 km/h, climate-damaging gases increase by around a fifth. The people of Austria do not need another questionable transport experiment, they deserve a well-developed and affordable train and public transport network."

In terms of climate protection, which means nothing other than protecting people, transport is still the biggest problem area. Slightly less than a third of all climate-damaging gases are produced here.

In 2022, greenhouse gases in the transport sector were around 50 percent higher than in 1990, making transport the only sector in which climate-damaging gases have risen massively since 1990 instead of falling.

"The climate-damaging trend of the last three decades must finally be brought to a sustainable end. Instead of speed increases, we need investment in public transport, the expansion of safe cycle paths and the systematic phasing out of the combustion engine," demands Duregger.