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Bicycle demo »Kidical Mass« in Cologne
Photo: Henning Kaiser / dpa
It's a bit like Fridays-for-Future, only the children are younger and they come by bike.
At the “Kidical Mass”, the youngsters and parents roll through the streets together to demonstrate for more bike paths and safer road traffic.
The last time there were 25,000 kids in 130 cities just before the general election.
"Parents and children don't even dare to ride short distances, whether in the city or in the country," criticizes the alliance, "the transport infrastructure is made for the car.
Cycle paths are often much too narrow, bumpy or even non-existent. «The envious gaze turns to neighboring countries such as Denmark or the Netherlands, where cyclists are not marginalized.
Pop-up bike paths as positive examples
Anne Klein-Hitpaß from the German Institute for Urban Studies estimates that it will take ten years to convert German cities to make them bike-friendly.
"With political courage, a bike decision behind you and accelerated planning processes, it might be more successful." The pop-up cycle paths in some metropolises have shown that more speed is possible.
Citizens' initiatives in around 50 cities are now campaigning for a better bicycle infrastructure.
Almost a million signatures have so far been collected for the cycling decisions.
The cities often take on the demands of citizens' initiatives, such as this week in Jena.
The difficult step is from the decision to the implementation, said Klein-Hitpaß.
»Everyone easily dares to say: I want more bicycle traffic.
But when parking spaces are really taken away, there is resistance and suddenly those responsible lose courage. "
Anyone who wants to understand why the expansion of bicycle traffic in German cities has not advanced a long time should go to the market square with bicycle activists.
It takes less than ten minutes for a man to approach the initiators of the cycling decision in Jena and let off steam: He doesn't want more, but fewer cyclists on the streets.
"The desire to divide the room differently is getting louder"
"They don't obey any traffic rules," he complains across the board.
And it also shows that there is great resistance to more bicycle traffic.
Even if for many people the advantages are obvious.
At the first cycling decision in Berlin in 2016, more than 100,000 people signed within three weeks.
In many places, the pressure of citizens' petitions led cities to commit to more and safer cycle paths and better funding.
Also in Jena, where the city council accepted the demands of the cycling decision this week.
But what's next?
The political goal is actually clear: "Bicycles need more space in the cities," says the Vice-President of the German Association of Cities, Verena Göppert.
More cycling means better air quality and helps to achieve the climate goals.
"The desire to divide the public space in our cities differently is growing louder," she says.
»Car drivers have so far been the most privileged road users in terms of space. In this comparison, all the other groups are behind, ”analyzes traffic expert Klein-Hitpaß. Expanding bicycle traffic also means that car traffic must give up space. This harbors potential for conflict.
Ragnhild Sørensen from the Changing Cities association, which organized the Berlin Radentscheid and now acts as a kind of network for Radentscheid initiatives in Germany, reports something similar. The realization that cities have to be designed differently and more sustainably is growing. "All cities and municipalities have problems with too much car traffic and a cycling decision is an offer to the municipalities to proactively address the problem," she says. But many municipalities did not approach the problem courageously enough and shied away from the expected resistance. "The problem is not solved with a few newly painted wheel strips."
In the capital, for example, the demands have been accepted.
In 2018, a new mobility law was passed, which prescribes the priority of walking, cycling and local public transport.
"The actual redevelopment of the city is taking place slowly, however." If the pace of 2020 is taken as a benchmark, it would take 200 years before the mobility law was implemented.
The much-noticed pop-up bike paths are already included.
"The cities are already working hard and promoting safe cycling," says City Council representative Göppert.
They expanded cycle paths, moved stop lines at traffic lights or defused dangerous spots at intersections.
The expectations of cyclists are high, but planning and construction processes take time.
In Jena, too, those responsible for Radentscheid want to stay on the ball with all the jubilation over the city council resolution.
In some cases, the willingness of the city to take concrete measures was disappointing, says spokeswoman Solveig Selzer.
Now a bicycle traffic concept will first be drawn up, and the citizens' initiative expects the first concrete construction measures for the year 2023. "We have to keep applying pressure."
fww / dpa