ATS presents mountain bike concept: First pilot routes in summer 2022

Created: 2022-06-02 05:49

Tim Coldewey (left) presented the current status of the mountain bike concept and the next steps in the Waitzinger Keller in Miesbach.

© ATS

District – In order to integrate the growing number of mountain bikers, the ATS is planning designated paths.

There should be pilot routes in the summer of 2022.

Tim Coldewey from the Alpenregion Tegernsee Schliersee (ATS) recently presented the current status of the mountain bike concept for the region at the second Mountain Bike Round Table in the Waitzinger Keller in Miesbach.

The approximately 40 participants from various stakeholder groups were also presented with examples of solutions from Austria.

In the district of Miesbach, pilot routes will soon be identified.

The challenges surrounding the topic of mountain biking are not new, ATS reports: “A currently outdated range of officially designated routes and paths is meeting an increasingly demanding target group of mountain bikers.

The result is the sometimes illegal use of paths with numerous negative effects on landowners, forest, nature or hunting.”

ATS has already reached milestones

Therefore, ATS has been pushing ahead with the redesign of the mountain bike route network since summer 2020.

"Our goal is clear: we want to find a sustainable solution for all stakeholders involved and create an offer for mountain bikers who are already with us anyway," explained Tim Coldewey, mountain bike product developer at ATS.

Guidance and raising awareness through communication are the focus of efforts - and milestones have already been reached, Coldewey said.

The basis of all measures is the developed liability and operator concept, which releases the property owners from liability and regulates the obligation to ensure traffic safety for officially designated mountain bike trails.

In a next step, numerous talks have been held with municipalities and property owners since 2021.

Bike parks complement mountain bike trails

Coldewey promised that the first routes would open in the summer of 2022.

The focus is on the identification of existing paths that are used jointly by mountain bikers and hikers.

Coldewey also presented the possibility of using the existing signage as a basis for identifying the routes.

Using a few examples from Austria, Alex Arpaci from Schneestern GmbH showed that the goal of directing mountain bikers can work with suitable offers.

In the discussion that followed, it became clear how important those present considered the realization of the first pilot routes in order to gain experience with the concept as soon as possible.

The focus should be on easy to moderate trails to appeal to the large mass of mountain bikers.

Offers in bike parks, as planned by individual local initiatives, complement this offer.

In order to be able to implement bans in the long term, there must also be a good range of mountain bikes in the region.

"With the tailwind from this round table, we can now continue to pursue our concept," says Coldewey happily.

Now the first pilot routes are to be implemented as quickly as possible in order to gain experience.