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Photo: lukas breusch photography

Press release | 08.05.2023

World’s largest cycling campaign kicks off in Mannheim

City Cycling invites municipalities to hop on their bikes to promote cycling and climate action

Mannheim / Frankfurt am Main, 8 May 2023. The starting signal for the international Climate Alliance campaign City Cycling was sounded yesterday with a rally at Germany’s national garden show in Mannheim. Local politicians and citizens can collect climate-friendly bicycle kilometres during a 21 day campaign period through the end of September and thus help promote cycling.

Baden-Württemberg's State Secretary at the Ministry of Transport, Elke Zimmer, opened the campaign: "Last year, we were able to break all records for City Cycling in Baden-Württemberg. City Cycling has become more and more popular over the years – the benefits of the mobility transition can be experienced by everyone when cycling every day. Every citizen can get around in a climate-friendly and simple way and have fun at the same time. This is also our message with our RadKULTUR initiative: the top means of transport is the bicycle. I am particularly pleased that we are also taking part in the school cycling event for the first time this year and are setting an example for independent, environmentally friendly and healthy mobility for our youth. Let's pedal together for climate action. I wish all participants lots of fun, endurance and a good tailwind!"

In large German cities, almost half of all car journeys are less than five kilometres long – a distance that could also be easily, and in many cases more quickly, covered by bicycle. This is exactly where CITY CYCLING comes in and motivates citizens to experience the many advantages of cycling for themselves. According to Mannheim's Lord Mayor, Dr. Peter Kurz, "This positive invitation to rethink one's own mobility behaviour is the great strength of the campaign." At the same time, Kurz also sees an important role on the part of the city to promote cycling: "We are responsible for providing people with well-developed cycling infrastructure that helps them reach their destination quickly and safely – we have made progress here, but there is still a lot to do in the next few years.

For André Muno, director of the City Cycling campaign, high-quality cycling infrastructure is also the decisive building block for a change in traffic. To this end, the City Cycling app is providing municipalities with the appropriate data. "The trips recorded with the app are anonymised and scientifically evaluated. This provides a meaningful picture of cycling habits and identifies potential improvements in the infrastructure. The results therefore decisively support the municipalities in expanding the local cycling infrastructure on the basis of data and in line with the needs of cyclists," explains Muno. Thanks to funding from the German Federal Ministry of Digital Affairs and Transport, all municipalities participating in City Cycling throughout Germany can access this data free of charge through 2024 via the RiDE platform.

City Cycling has already broken a record in 2023: Over 2,600 municipalities have taken part in this year's campaign so far. Municipalities worldwide can register to take part in  2023’s edition of City Cycling through September.

City Cycling is an international Climate Alliance campaign is supported by Ortlieb, ABUS, stadthelm.de, TERN, WERTGARANTIE, Busch + Müller, Schwalbe, WSM und Paul Lange & Co..In the German Federal State of Baden-Württemberg, the campaign is supported by the ADFC Baden-Württemberg, the AGFK Baden-Württemberg, the Baden-Württemberg Ministry for Transport and the RadKULTUR initiative.

Further Infromation

Contacts

Sarah Mekjian
Communications DIrector
T. +49 69 7171 39 -20
communications@climatealliance.org

Sebastian Reisch
City Cycling Communications Manager
+49 69 7171 39 -76
s.reisch@climatalliance.org

CITY CYCLING
With its international City Cycling campaign, Climate Alliance invites all citizens and members of local parliaments to pedal and set an example for increased promotion of cycling. In teams, they are to collect as many bicycle kilometres as possible for their municipality on 21 consecutive days between May and September. The campaign aims to sensitise citizens to cycling in everyday life and to bring the issues of bicycle use and cycling planning more strongly into local parliaments. With the reporting platform RADar! and the project RiDE – Radverkehr in Deutschland (Cycling in Germany), which provides scientifically prepared cycling data to the participating municipalities, the campaign also includes two elements with which the cycling infrastructure can be improved in a very concrete way including the involvement of citizens. city-cycling.org

THE CLIMATE ALLIANCE
For over 30 years, Climate Alliance member municipalities have been acting in partnership with indigenous rainforest peoples for the benefit of the global climate. With nearly 2,000 members spread across more than 25 European countries, Climate Alliance is Europe's largest city network dedicated to comprehensive and equitable climate action. Recognising the impact our lifestyles can have on the world's most vulnerable people and places, Climate Alliance pairs local action with global responsibility. climatealliance.org