Erfurt: Traffic garden on Petersberg has to give way - bike test in danger!

Erfurt: Traffic garden on Petersberg has to give way - bike test in danger!

in Erfurt is a significant change in the house: The popular traffic garden on Petersberg, a central place for the bicycle test of fourth grades, is to be laid. This was decided on June 5 by the Urban Development Committee. The traffic garden has been a proven training location since the 1980s, where around 2,000 elementary school students test their skills in road traffic.

The city administration, however, assures that the traffic garden is not completely abandoned, but only moves. A suitable alternative location still has to be found. As long as the traffic garden remains in its current form, but fewer and fewer schools use this facility, since many now hold the exams in their own schoolyards. The traffic garden will be dissolved as soon as a new location is available.

bicycle test and place of learning

The bicycle test is an important event for the students. On the day of the examination, the students will be accompanied by the traffic safety advisory officer Gaby Michalski, who gives them helmets and safety vests. The test consists of a rehearsal round and a round of ranking, with the children waiting for their use in a long line. Here you have to master different traffic situations and show yourself safely in dealing with traffic signs and rules.

The training course of the traffic garden includes confluence, intersections and a traffic light system. At four stations, the children have to complete various challenges, such as starting from the edge of the road or turning left. Teachers like Alexander Jaschke emphasize the importance of traffic education in school lessons and the practical application in the traffic garden. After all, there are differences in the existence rates between the schools, but the students learn to make independent decisions in road traffic.

changed needs of the city

The decision to relocate the traffic garden is in the context of the need for more freedom on the Petersberg. The city plans to redesign the site as a play and sports area as well as for stays with small gastronomy. The low frequency of use of the traffic garden cannot be reconciled with the needs of the population, especially since the noise is a growing problem in many areas of the city. The goal is to relieve the current noise hornets through additional freedom offers.

The signs are clear: the need for movement and open spaces increases, while the traffic garden as such an institution no longer seems to have the relevance that it once had. In Erfurt, the focus is now on how the school children can continue to offer a safe and probably structured place for their bicycle tests in the future. Initiatives that take care of the safety in road traffic are still of great importance, and opportunities to support them with modern media and teaching materials are also considered in more detail.

Due to changes in traffic safety and practical cycling training, new resources are primarily necessary, as are already available in North Rhine-Westphalia. There, schools receive media packages for cycling training that help teachers to teach students safe behavior in road traffic. There is also support online to sensitize children and to make learning easier.

If everyone pulls together, the redesign of the Petersberg could also be tailored to the needs of the students and the city. It remains to be hoped that the new direction of the traffic garden will not only benefit the pupils, but also to the entire population.

While the farewell to the old traffic garden is due, we can be excited to see what the future brings and where the new location will ultimately be. It remains to be seen that the new design also has a positive effect on the traffic education of the children and that they can be safer in road traffic.