Traffic, in its political context, is very important and simultaneously very controversially debated at the local level. Often the debates about mobility are not led in a factual manner. This is mainly caused by the lack of transparent budgets in local authorities when it comes to certain activities. One of them is road traffic. Most local authorities would not be able to answer the question whether road traffic pays for itself or receives subsidies. There are no cost centres in local budgets that list income and expenditure for motorised private transport (MPT), they are tucked away in nearly all other cost centres in the budget.
The ICLEI European Secretariat has tried to seek out hidden subsidies in the budgets of three major cities in Germany (Stuttgart, Bremen and Dresden). The budgets of these cities were thoroughly examined and analysed. The aim of the study - supported financially by the National Agency for the Environment - was to find obvious, as well as hidden sources of income and expenditure for MPT.
The three cities show a marked discrepancy in this per capita subsidy: Bremen has 111 €, Dresden 123 €, and Stuttgart 145 €. However, the result demonstrates without doubt that German municipalities pay a huge amount of money towards MPT, which is in no way comparable to the income from that source. Working with a very conservative calculation, the subsidies still amount to over 84 million € in Stuttgart, 56 million € in Dresden, and over 60 million € in Bremen. If we make a projection for all 82 million German citizens, we arrive at a figure (at local level, excluding the central government and governments of the federal states) of more than 10 billion € in subsidies towards MPT during the year 2000! The highest figures arise from maintenance and upkeep of roads, city-drainage, cleaning and lighting of streets, and building of parking lots. The fire-brigade, police, economic development and parks and recreation departments also represent large sources of expenditure which strain a municipalities budget. If we take, on the other hand, sources of income through MPT, we can list fines, tolls and parking fees.
