Overview

• Next Tuesday the Berlin Senate will vote on a plan to lift daytime 30 km/h speed limits on up to 25 of the city’s 41 main roads under its revised air-quality and noise control proposal.
• Seven streets will retain 30 km/h restrictions due to persistently high pollutant levels, and nine others will keep partial limits in areas of traffic safety concern such as near schools and care homes.
• The proposal also calls for 30 km/h nighttime speed limits between 22:00 and 06:00 across roughly 230 km of the road network to address noise and protect public health.
• Environmental groups BUND and Deutsche Umwelthilfe, along with Greens and some SPD members, warn the rollback could increase accident rates and conflict with EU air-quality and noise objectives.
• Senat officials stress that under the Straßenverkehrsordnung the default urban speed is 50 km/h and that an April 2025 administrative directive broadens municipal power to impose 30 km/h zones under specified conditions.