Cycle track

Focus areas

The idea of cycling under the U1 elevated railroad has surely been entertained by a number of Berliners before us. But Finn Martti Mela rounded up some acquaintances who simply sketched out the idea and published it in November 2015.

The interest from cyclists, media, and politics was huge: 10,000 Facebook fans within just two weeks, media articles all over the world, and the Federal Ecodesign Prize followed.

The House of Representatives also reacted and invested in a feasibility study - albeit on cycle tracks in general, a category into which the cycle track does not fit and for which it was never designed on our part. By definition, cycle lanes have a minimum width of 4 meters and run largely without intersections. The bike lane averages 3 meters and, as an inner-city route, has many more intersections than suburban routes. Consequently, it was not unexpected that the bike lane fell through the cracks of the bike lane study. However, this study already attests to the special characteristic of our route as an urban district-connecting tangent, onto which the "bicycle highways" coming from the periphery could dock.

In addition to the enormous potential of the bike route for Berlin's traffic, we also decided to work out the possible effects of a realized bike lane on the economy, urban development, and culture. We are receiving lively support from civil society as well as from companies and research, and from the Senate Department for the Environment, Transport and Climate Protection itself.

Runtime

August 2017 - July 2019

Project partners

DLR-Insitut für Verkehrsforschung

Technische Universität Hamburg Harburg (Institut für Verkehrsplanung und Logistik)