Commercial areas are planned in many places today. The traffic problems are often only assessed for motorised traffic. All other means of transport tend to be neglected, such as sufficiently wide barrier-free footpaths and cycle paths also for cargo bikes, public transport and rail connections for passenger and freight transport. The rail connection is usually not available or only feasible at all with very great effort.
Unfortunately, decisions are usually made first and the problems come later and can no longer be solved. This applies equally to traffic problems and ecological problems.
Trucks should be transported quickly by rail, as it is more climate-neutral. Although the new individual rail system can also transport HGVs in a climate-neutral way, whether it can be solved economically and logistically over long distances still has to be worked out.
A new "Guideline for Commercial Areas" has been produced within this framework, with many questions that should be answered. It provides essential help in assessing whether a commercial area is
appropriate in this location.
Furthermore, an "Example of an Ordinance on the Limitation of Light Pollution" is included here, which is welcome to be adopted.
A reference to this website would be nice, but is not required.
The new freight stations or train formation facilities described cannot be built everywhere and the lorry should not have to travel so far, max. 50 km to the next freight station. Therefore, small simple freight stations are necessary. Building these small freight stations over the existing tracks or over a small passenger station saves a lot of space and facilitates lorry traffic by rail. In this way, sidings for truck traffic could also be made possible in rural areas.
Here are two videos of my own:
It is becoming increasingly difficult to meet the requirements for industrial estates. Furthermore, it is not justifiable today to destroy more farmland or other natural areas for industrial estates and the necessary compensation areas. It is becoming increasingly difficult to connect sufficient transport routes and more and more people are being affected by the individual traffic of employees and guests, local public transport (ÖPNV) and lorry traffic. Therefore, from an ecological point of view, we have to use our resources more sparingly.
This means that we have to use the space above the existing business parks. This is of course a challenge, but on the one hand, this space on the 2nd floor can also be sold or better leased and thus become more economical.
Here, two grand buildings bridging large areas.
Left: Pahlke Bad in Mönchengladbach Rheydt and right: Art Museum in Sao Paulo,
50 Years of Pahlkebad - Radio 90.1 (radio901.de)
(Art Museum in São Paulo, Brazil (thisismyhappiness.com)
Also included are the Philharmonie in Hamburg and the Bosch Garage in Stuttgart.
As shown in the sketch on the right, commercial areas can be designed with a lot of greenery. Especially at the borders to other areas, the large halls can be somewhat hidden. In addition, these also provide areas for recreation for the employees. Trucks could access the upper floor via ramps.
For the lower lighting, so-called daylight spots can be installed with a diameter of several metres.
Attached is a design by the architects Jaspers Architects showing how such bridge structures can connect residential quarters in a space-saving way and thus create new living space in the inner cities. In the same sense, commercial enterprises can also make better use of space and save ecologically valuable land. After all, space on earth is finite.The required traffic problems for these bridge buildings can be perfectly adapted with the rail-individual transport system. The lifts of the stops for barrier-free boarding and alighting are now led upwards, directly into these new buildings.
Like start page 6.10:
The construction of new parking spaces in commercial areas and rest areas, e.g. on motorways, could be done faster and in a more environmentally friendly way if the existing parking spaces were
extended with a second level. I.e. building additional parking spaces as an elevated area above the current parking areas of the rest areas, e.g. with a steel scaffold.
It should be possible to obtain planning permission quickly, since
1. only the existing areas will be built over, with appropriate border distances,
2. no new areas have to be sealed and protected,
3. no further compensation areas have to be created,
4. both sides of the service areas with crossings can be used together through optimal use of all parking spaces,
5. if necessary, the areas above the motorway can be used additionally, and
6. the new areas can be equipped with solar panels for shading and power generation.
The construction itself can be carried out quickly with prefabricated parts. The social areas could be built above the existing rest areas on the 2nd level so that the existing techniques can be
used.
The costs are also lower, as much fewer resources are used. With parking management via the network and with pre-indicators, the search for a parking space is simplified and there is less search
traffic.
Here are two examples of a service area on the A52 in Germany.
Our topsoil is important and also finite. The Federal Environment Agency shows us why:
The finite topsoil:
"The development of a one centimetre thick humus-rich soil layer can take between 100 and 300 years - but can be lost to erosion in a single heavy thunderstorm rain."
Link to a German website
If you find any errors, we are grateful for any advice.