Spectrum: After 2012, the ADFC carried out its major bicycle climate test again in November 2014. The evaluation of the questionnaires from over 100.000 participants was presented today in Berlin. This shows that there is still a lot to do for city planners and politicians in Germany when it comes to bicycles.
The respondents gave good marks throughout Germany for the accessibility of destinations by bicycle, and the majority of participants also stated that they enjoyed cycling on the road. But there are still many points of criticism - many cyclists are annoyed by the lax treatment of illegal parking on cycle paths, by bad and dangerous traffic lights and poor security at construction sites. A worrying result was also obtained when asked about the perception of safety as a cyclist in road traffic: the majority of respondents stated that they did not feel safe on their bikes in traffic.
From a regional perspective, there are definitely big differences between cities, federal states and regions. Once again, the university city of Münster greets you from the top of the rankings, but Erlangen, Ingolstadt, Bocholt and Oldenburg also received good reports. On the other hand, things are looking bad in large parts of the Ruhr area, in Wiesbaden and Pforzheim. Germany's two largest cities, Hamburg and Berlin, also received below-average bad marks from their cyclists. Wuppertal, Augsburg, Stuttgart and Heilbronn, among others, showed that it is possible to improve the situation for cyclists - a total of twelve cities were recognized as "catching up" because their rating has improved significantly since the last survey two years ago.
Anyone who would like to see how their home town or community fared in the test can do so on the ADFC website – there is an interactive map with the detailed survey results here: www.adfc.de
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