Highway rest areas Münsterland-Ost and Münsterland-West along the A1 highway will be extended. However, this is still only a small drop in the ocean of needs.
At the end of January, the Federal Ministry of Transport and the North Rhine-Westphalia Road Administration will officially present an extension project for both rest areas. For 15 years, residents of Roxel, a neighborhood located near truck stops, protested against their extension (the „Roxel Landscape Protection” initiative). Nevertheless, the authorities decided to expand the facilities and prepared the project. It will be presented on January 25 this year.
According to the plan, 100 additional parking spaces for trucks and 31 for passenger cars will be built in both locations. At the Münsterland-West rest area, there are currently spaces for 28 trucks – the target number is 70. In Münsterland-Ost, the number of truck spaces will increase from 28 to 86.
31 Thousand Parking Spaces Still Needed in Germany
This is good news for truckers, although an additional 100 seats are just a fraction of the needs. On German highways, as estimated by VEDA truck stop administration association, there is a total of 31 thousand parking spaces still missing.
The pace of building new facilities is disproportionate to the growing traffic on our western neighbors’ roads. To meet the current needs, not taking into account the traffic growth, with the current rate of construction of new car parks, it will take Germany another 20 years. For example, in Baden-Württemberg 130 new parking spaces for trucks were created last year, but the land is still 2.5 thousand short.
When the tachograph „calls” for a break, drivers are often forced to stop at places that are not intended for it, or even not allowed (e.g. a mall parking lot, the roadside or on an access road). If they only end up paying a fine, it’s not that bad. It’s worse if the trucker pays for it with his life or health.
Useful Applications
In regions where finding a parking space is more complicated, applications finding free parking spaces for drivers may be helpful. One of such solutions is the TransParking.eu free application, which not only indicates the nearest free parking space, but also provides more detailed information about the facilities available there.
You can download the application from this site.