Finally: A new road traffic code is coming!
In recent years, the number of lawsuits for administrative offences has increased rapidly. On average, each vehicle owner sues the municipality in which his or her car is registered 37 times a year. The waiting time for lawsuits is currently 15.5 years. In 98% of the cases it is a matter of administrative offences or penalty notices of less than 15.01 euros. Each official act, beginning with the delivery of the first notice, already costs the state 25 euros, according to its own figures. If an appeal is lodged against the notice and the matter is pursued to court proceedings, this sum rises to 382.71.
A case from Frankfurt was the straw that broke the camel's back. A 'parking ticket' for 15 euros had been issued by a temporary worker because the city on the Main does not have enough of its own employees to write up all parking violators around the clock. The local court still found it okay to forcibly privatise this source of income. The Higher Regional Court, on the other hand, not so much. 2,027.43 from the state treasury because a fussy motorist did not recognise the evidence (there are no persons in StGB/OWiG, so witnesses are just as much 'evidence' as parking machines) for 15 euros. This disproportion has now come to an end.
From now on there will be no more parking bans!
Because the words "street" and "penalty" are identical except for one letter, the two most important sets of rules of German bureaucracy are combined. For the common citizen, only one small thing has changed. Whereas in the past the rule in the sign forest was: if something is not forbidden, it is allowed, now the rule is: everything is forbidden unless it is clearly allowed. What in the vernacular was called a parking or stopping ban no longer exists. Only new permission signs allow parking in designated areas. The old prohibition signs, 84 billion in North Rhine-Westphalia and Hesse alone, will be gradually dismantled by June 2020 and sent to the Maldives as development aid for the construction of lightning rods.
Clear conditions at last
Since it is well known that German drivers have a hard time with changes, the previous driving licences will be declared invalid as a precautionary measure, which is in any case gradually provided for by EU regulations. The revenge of the welfare state for unnecessary work in the traffic monitoring centres and the many complaints of frustrated drivers is the obligation that everyone must acquire a new driving licence and have it confirmed every year - staggered according to year of birth - in refresher courses.
The expected revenue - since it is not assumed that anyone will want to abandon their car - quite cleverly circumvents the problem that existed with the vehicle tax, which has worked so sluggishly and predictably up to now. The EU had complained that foreign motorists would be disadvantaged if they had to pay a toll, whereas domestic motorists would not. The rejected argument that cars registered in Germany would pay for the maintenance of the road network and in particular the motorways via the vehicle taxes is therefore not valid. Taxes are not earmarked for a specific purpose, so their designations are all the same; income, tobacco and church taxes are no more used for road construction and maintenance than the motor vehicle tax.
What is the actual next step?
For a short transitional period - since no more cars are being driven because of the confiscated driving licences - petrol stations will be closed and the mineral oil tax as well as the tobacco tax mentioned will be increased to 40 euros per litre of petrol or reduced per gram of pure tobacco. Smokers and car drivers are finally treated equally. If you want to smoke and drive, it doesn't matter what it costs. The bill that smoking in the car is not expressly permitted and is thus prohibited was met with great applause, especially by the CDU/CSU, which has so far rigorously rejected any move against the second most harmful secondary matter in the world.