How bicycle friendly is Germany?

Pascal Bürkle

Hi, I’m Pascal, a developer on the Datawrapper app team. Today I’m taking a look at how the German population perceives the bicycle friendliness of our cities.

Cycling is a substantial part of our society, be it as a hobby, sport, means of transportation, or a small contribution to the big fight against climate change by reducing emissions from cars and making our cities cleaner and healthier.

The German government has big plans to improve cycling infrastructure and safety and promote the use of bicycles — the minister of transportation has even said that Germany should become “a cycling country.” But in practice these plans don’t look too great, with the budget getting cut in recent years and a slow pace when it comes to making and implementing real changes.

A survey organized by the ADFC (Allgemeiner Deutscher Fahrrad-Club, or German Cyclists Club) shows that most Germans think their city is not bicycle-friendly. Many cities score quite badly and only very few reach an acceptable result. The majority of participants (63%) use their bicycle almost every day and nearly everyone (90%) also owns a car, so they know both perspectives.

The survey is taken every two years, and it contains over 30 questions on different aspects of cycling culture and infrastructure. The goal is to grasp the general public opinion and provide cities with specific issues to make targeted improvements.

Unfortunately, the results from 2022 don’t look much better than they did in 2012, with especially the safety and comfort aspects being rated worse than 10 years ago and people associating biking in their daily lives with stress rather than fun. However there are some things that improved, like the promotion of cycling and the availability of public bikes via bike sharing systems.

There are a few things to consider when evaluating these results. First of all they are opinions, not objective measures. So it might be that people's standards have changed over time, and things that are objectively better today are just not perceived as a notable improvement. It could also be that the increased attention on cycling and the comparison with other countries that innovate much faster, made people more aware of the remaining problems.

It’s also important to note that the ratings vary quite significantly from place to place, with bigger cities improving noticeably in some aspects over the recent years and smaller towns and rural areas stagnating or getting worse overall.

As mentioned before, the survey is conducted every two years, which means there will be one in 2024. So if you travel or commute by bicycle in Germany, check out the website of the ADFC to take part and voice your opinion when the survey begins!

That’s all from me for today! I hope I was able to provide some interesting insights. Tune in next week to hear from our designer Gustav!

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Pascal Bürkle

(he/him, @pabueco) is a full-stack developer working on various aspects of the Datawrapper app. In his spare time, he loves exploring random ideas, starting way too many side projects, and playing all kinds of video games. You can see more of his work at his website pabue.co.

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