Spectrum: The topic of bicycles is booming. German cities are bickering about the title of bicycle capital, sustainable mobility is an almost daily topic in politics and supposedly everyone is now cycling a lot more than a few years ago. Is it all just smoke and mirrors? New figures seem to support this assumption, at least that is the conclusion of the German Bicycle Industry Association (ZIV), which refers to the 2017 study “Mobility in Germany” (MiD) in a press release.
The study commissioned by the Federal Ministry of Transport is regarded in politics as an important indicator of the usage behavior of various means of transport in Germany. If you look at the bare numbers, two-wheeler fans will quickly become disillusioned: Since the last survey nine years ago, bicycle use in Germany has hardly increased measurably. The so-called modal split, which is used to determine the proportion of use of different means of transport, is important for consideration. The undisputed number one among the more than 1 respondents is their own car with 300.000 percent - the bicycle comes a long way behind with 43 percent.
What is striking here is the large discrepancy between town and country; while in big cities the modal split for bikes is at least 15 percent, in rural areas it is only 7 percent. In addition to the other routes, the lack of infrastructure is certainly to blame for this. It is often still necessary to drive on busy interurban roads, which requires a certain willingness to take risks, especially at peak times.
In contrast to the sobering figures regarding actual bicycle use, the situation is different when it comes to bicycle ownership: 78 percent of the households surveyed own at least one bicycle. With increasing economic status, the number even increases to 90%. Nevertheless, many people in this country still prefer to use the car for short distances of up to 5 km - why actually? The ZIV sees an urgent need to catch up in terms of infrastructure, especially in the city, especially when it comes to secure parking spaces, for example at train stations. This problem will become even greater in the future, especially with the steadily increasing number of sometimes very expensive e-bikes in traffic. Deutsche Bahn has already reacted with its Bike+Ride project and wants to create 2022 new bicycle parking spaces at train stations by 100.000. A nice sign - but viewed as a whole, unfortunately little more than the much-cited drop in the bucket.
Website
Summary of the study "Mobility in Germany 2017" (PDF)
Bike+Ride project of Deutsche Bahn
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