Promenadenring in Leipzig - the 'Great Vision'

摘要

The Promenadenring, a ring road and landscape park around the city centre, has a historical and cultural meaning that goes beyond Leipzig. The road, with up to 50,000 vehicles per day, is a barrier between the city centre and the adjacent area. How can the conflict between landscape, city development and traffic be scaled down in the future? Is a reduced ring road with less traffic the answer? This can only work if the planning philosophy 'demand follows supply' theory is applied. This means there is a need to define a compatible supply of road infrastructure, to evaluate its impacts on traffic, and to compare them with the urban and scenic advantages. The 250 year old 'Great Vision Promenadenring gives orientation for its continuation. Five 'Steps forward' are suggested which lead to a new version of the 'Great Vision'. The Promenadenring - is two different things: an urban landscape park around the city centre of Leipzig (Figure 01) and a highly traffic loaded ring road (Figure 02) with up to eight car lanes plus four tram tracks. Thirdly, the significant buildings along the ring: from Neues Rathaus over Thomas Church, Hoefe am Bruehl, the main railway station, Opera House, New Augus-teum, Gewandhaus to the City-Tower (Dietrich, 2015), that need to be considered in the infrastructure planning.