As of: 04/24/2023 6:28 p.m
According to a survey by the General German Bicycle Club, Germany is not a bicycle-friendly country. According to the ADFC, progress has been made in the past two years, especially in large cities. But overall, Germany only gets a school grade of 3.96 – “sufficient”. In the north, Bremen is the city with the best rating.
Bremen comes loud ADFC bike climate test, in which a total of 245,000 people took part, to a grade of 3.57. Nationwide, this is the best rating for a city with more than 500,000 inhabitants. Hanover (grade 3.63) took third place in this category behind Frankfurt am Main. Hamburg (grade 3.98) came sixth out of the 14 major cities assessed.
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Hamburg: Too narrow cycle paths, too many bicycle thefts
After all, Hamburg improved by one place compared to the last survey in 2020. “Hamburg is only making marginal progress in the climate test,” said Tom Jakobi from the ADFC board member in Hamburg. One remains in the gray midfield of the German cities. When it comes to infrastructure and traffic safety, the Hanseatic city comes off particularly badly. According to the ADFC, 77 percent of those surveyed in Hamburg consider cycling to be dangerous – only a few find it mostly fun. “The width of Hamburg’s cycle paths is rated particularly poorly,” says Jakobi. According to the ADFC, insufficient checks on illegal parkers on cycle paths and the problem of bicycle thefts also cause dissatisfaction. Hamburg’s cyclists, on the other hand, rate the public StadtRad rental system and the numerous one-way streets open in the opposite direction as good.
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Lower Saxony: Nordhorn performs best
In Lower Saxony, the town of Nordhorn got the best result: With a grade of 2.76, the town in the county of Bentheim also leads the ranking of towns with 50,000 to 100,000 inhabitants. The city administration is “bicycle-affine”, said ADFC country manager Rüdiger Henze. In Nordhorn, among other things, bicycle roads have been laid out and bicycle parking spaces have been created. Respondents particularly praised the fact that they could get around quickly by bike and that the city center was well connected.
Lower Saxony’s state capital Hanover came in third among the major cities nationwide, but with a grade of 3.63 it still has “room for improvement”, according to the ADFC. Lower Saxony’s second largest city, Braunschweig, ranks fifth in the nationwide comparison in the “200,000 to 500,000 residents” category – with an overall rating of 3.75.
The “most catching up” in Lower Saxony were Achim (district of Verden) and Dinklage (district of Vechta) – they were able to improve their satisfaction by 0.34 and 0.19 grade points respectively compared to the last survey.
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Schleswig-Holstein: Kiel takes fourth place in its category
Schleswig-Holstein’s state capital Kiel was also rated in the survey in the category “200,000 to 500,000 residents” – and came in fourth nationwide with a grade of 3.4. The Kiel grade point average improved slightly by 0.1 percentage points compared to the previous test. With a score of 4.27, Lübeck came 17th out of the 26 cities evaluated in this category.
The city of Plön received the best grade in Schleswig-Holstein: With a score of 3.19, Plön was ranked 22nd among the cities with fewer than 20,000 inhabitants. Bad Segeberg stood out in the negative category and, with a grade of 4.65, took 466th place of the 474 small towns listed nationwide.
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Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania: Schwerin with a grade of 3.94 – Rostock 3.95
Rostock, the largest city in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, was rated in the category 100,000 to 200,000 inhabitants and took ninth place nationwide with a grade of 3.95.
MV state capital Schwerin received a similar grade of 3.94 – but in the category 50,000 to 100,000 inhabitants. Neubrandenburg (3.87) and Stralsund (4.35) were also rated there. From the point of view of MV, Greifswald did best in this category. With a grade of 3.28, the university town took fifth place nationwide in the category.
Best nationwide result for Wettringen in NRW
Wettringen in North Rhine-Westphalia received the best grade in Germany with a grade of 2.0 – Wettringen received the “special prize for rural areas” for this.
The bicycle club ADFC measures the satisfaction of cyclists with its bicycle climate test. There is the survey every two years – it is supported by the Federal Ministry of Transport. The basis is an online survey. According to the ADFC, 245,000 people across Germany took part this time. In order for a municipality to be included in the rating at all, there had to be at least 50 to 100 voting results, depending on its size. According to the association, the ADFC’s non-representative survey is open to anyone who wants to vote, but it is aimed specifically at cyclists.
AUDIO: What about cycling in Germany? (3 mins)
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