No new basis for motorcycle driving bans

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Motorcycle noise

Debate about the volume of motorcycles

No new basis for motorcycle driving bans
Ralf Schneider

counselor

traffic & business

No new basis for motorcycle driving bans

Amendment of the Road Traffic Act
No new basis for motorcycle driving bans

On May 28, 2021, the Federal Council decided in its meeting to revise Paragraph 6 of the Road Traffic Act (StVG). The changes do not create a new legal basis for motorcycle bans.


Dina Dervisevic

05/26/2021

The Road Traffic Act (StVG) is changed, more precisely § 6, which regulates the implementation regulations. According to a letter from the federal government, the paragraph is “has become confusing due to multiple changes and additions”. In order to minimize the risk of incorrect application of the law and to make the law and its application more transparent for all of us, Section 6 of the StVG has been shortened and simplified.

Road Traffic Act should be clearer

According to the changes (Printed matter 432/21) may be permitted for the following reasons:
1. to ward off dangers posed by traffic on public roads,
2. to protect against harmful environmental effects caused by vehicles,
or 3. to protect consumers.
Also of legal ordinances for protection “the resident population or those seeking relaxation from emissions caused by traffic on public roads, in particular to protect against noise or exhaust fumes, (…)” is mentioned in the amendment to the law. Beyond that “Special regulations on Sundays and public holidays” mentioned in the legislative resolution of the Bundestag.

Now the impression could arise that the latest changes to the Road Traffic Act create a legal basis for driving bans for motorcyclists. However, this is not the case, because the content transported by the changes is already shown in the last version. In § 6 was already before: “The Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure is authorized to issue statutory ordinances with the consent of the Federal Council on (…) the protection of the resident population and those seeking relaxation against noise and exhaust emissions from motor vehicle traffic and on traffic restrictions on Sundays and public holidays”.

It is not specified when who must or may be protected, which of course leaves a lot of room for interpretation and argumentation. In particular, the much discussed noise issue is not discussed in more detail. It would also be a matter for the Federal Immission Control Act, which already regulates driving bans and traffic restrictions to a certain extent.

Objections of the Federal Council

A previous draft of the Bundestag for “Fourth law amending the Road Traffic Act and other road traffic regulations” even provided that statutory ordinances “for reasons of urgency” can also be issued without the consent of the Federal Council. The Federal Council did not agree to this because it saw its duty of co-determination violated, especially because regulations of this kind would often interfere with the administrative sovereignty of the individual federal states.

However, the Federal Council welcomes the core content of the proposal, which is why it has decided “Fourth law amending the Road Traffic Act and other road traffic regulations” on May 28 agreed.

Changes in the Road Traffic Act for data collection

Paragraph 63e is devoted to data collection and the question of how the data is stored and what it can be used for. The competent authority is allowed to collect, store and use any amount of data for traffic management. And then if “they are collected electronically from motor vehicles regularly or on an event-related basis and insofar as they [the data] are automatically sent from these vehicles to other motor vehicles or to the information technology road infrastructure. This involves the following information:

  1. Position of the vehicle,
  2. time indication,
  3. Direction of travel,
  4. speed,
  5. Acceleration or deceleration,
  6. Steering angle,
  7. Steering wheel angle,
  8. Vehicle width,
  9. Vehicle length,
  10. Status of vehicle lights and windshield wipers,
  11. Rotational movement around the vertical axis of the vehicle,
  12. Vehicle characteristics: Cars, trucks, motorcycles, public transport, vehicles with special rights or vehicles used in local public transport, sudden events with safety relevance, on the basis of which event-based vehicle reports are generated: traffic jams, emergency braking, temporarily slippery road surfaces, animals, people, obstacles, objects the lane, unsecured accident sites, short-term construction sites, restricted visibility, wrong-way drivers, road blockages that are not signposted or unusual weather conditions,
  13. Certificate ID of the data mentioned in numbers 1 to 13.

Until motorcycles collect all this data and automatically transfer it to other vehicles or to the “IT road infrastructure” However, it is still a while to pass on. Music of the future, so to speak.

In an earlier version of the article we reported a new basis for driving bans on motorcycles. However, this is not the case with the amendment to Section 6 of the Road Traffic Act. The new version is about an editorial revision. According to the federal government, it should “enable efficient application.” the “Scope of authorization and scope” should be retained, but not expanded.

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