On October 29, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Carsten Sommer was invited to Wiesbaden as an expert witness for the hearing on the amendment to the Hessian Road Act. The amendment is primarily intended to speed up planning procedures in road construction. From Carsten Sommer’s perspective, it can in principle achieve this goal; however, some changes come at the expense of environmental and climate protection.

A key focus of his statement was the prioritization of bypasses as part of the balancing process in road planning. According to the draft, bypasses are to be considered in the “overriding public interest” in the future, justified, among other things, by increased traffic safety. He considers this untenable: a generally positive effect on traffic safety has not been scientifically proven [1]. Added to this are additional CO₂ emissions resulting from construction and, frequently, from increased motor vehicle traffic.

He also advocated for explicitly naming environmental and climate protection as criteria in the law, as well as retaining the environmental impact assessment for heavily trafficked roads passing through residential areas.

The statement can be viewed here (starting on page 5): https://hessischer-landtag.de/sites/default/files/dateien/2026-10/WVA-AV-25-T1.pdf

[1] BASt study: “Assessment of Bypasses from a Traffic Safety Perspective” (https://edocs.tib.eu/files/e01fn19/1679804790.pdf)