From Autobahn to Bike Lanes: A Case Study of Germany's Cycling Success and Its Implications for the United States

1.???????? Abstract

This research explores the potential of cycling as a sustainable alternative to achieve global net-zero emissions by 2050. The United States requires a paradigm shift in transportation systems as technologies like electric vehicles will be insufficient. Drawing parallels between Germany and the U.S., characterized by high per-capita incomes and extensive road networks, the study delves into Germany's cycling boom of the 1970s. Examining policies, social associations, and the Rhine-Rurh Region as a case study, the paper extracts valuable insights for U.S. application.

Cycling's multifaceted benefits, including economic savings, health advantages, and environmental gains, position it as a compelling mode of transportation. Germany's exemplary cycling initiatives, notably in the Rhine-Rurh Region, underscore the positive impact of comprehensive policies and urban design. As the U.S. confronts barriers to widespread cycling adoption, Germany's experiences offer crucial lessons for integrating cycling into the American transportation landscape, fostering sustainability and inclusivity.

2.???????? Introduction

More than 140 countries around the world have pledged to achieve net zero by 2050, including the biggest pollutants United States, China, India, and the European Union which account for 88% of the global emissions.1 This goal will require a large-scale system change that will demand a reduction of the reliance on fossil fuels in the transportation sector to zero. This is often addressed through the electrification of vehicles; however, bicycles are an alternative that could add up to the goal in a cost-effective manner. As numerous cities across the globe embrace cycling, Germany stands out as one of the highest cycling countries.

Notably, Germany and the United States share various key characteristics including high per-capita incomes, high rates of car ownership, similarities in driver licensing rates, and extensive high-quality road networks.3 In the 1970s Germany had a cycling boom attributed to a series of public policies aimed at reducing car dependency. Therefore, an in-depth examination of the public policies underpinning Germany's remarkable cycling success can serve as a valuable case study, offering insights into potential actions for the United States. Such actions could pave the way for a more equitable allocation of public space and encourage the adoption of cycling as a mode of transportation that could significantly benefit vulnerable populations within the country.

This project will evaluate a series of academic papers, pro-cycling reports, and national transportation surveys. First, the paper will make the case for cycling and discuss the environmental, economic, and social benefits of this mode of transportation. Then the paper will discuss generalities about cycling in the United States and the current state of the art. Furthermore, the paper will discuss the policies and social associations that led to an increase in cycling in Germany. Then the project will highlight the Rhine-Ruhr region as a case study of these policy implementations. The goal of this paper is to extract valuable lessons from Germany's experience and determine how these lessons can be applied to boost cycling ridership in the United States.

3.???????? Making the case for cycling

Cycling represents a multifaceted solution to a myriad of contemporary challenges, making a compelling case for its widespread adoption in both urban and rural settings. Economically, it reduces the transportation costs for users. ITDP estimated that purchase, operations and maintenance, fuel, and insurance costs for a bicycle total approximately

$3.00 per 100km traveled. This cost is six times more expensive for private cars with a cost of $18.00 per 100km. Additionally, cycling reduces health expenditures as it contributes to a reduction in fatal accidents and a reduction in air pollution. The global cost of air pollution associated with premature mortality, disability, preterm births, and sick leave is estimated at $2.9 trillion, or 3.3% of the global GDP. In addition, the bicycle industry generates more jobs as every $1 million spent on bike lanes created 34 state and local jobs whereas the same expenditure on roads for cars only generated 8 state jobs. Additionally, the creation of bike lanes has been associated with the rise of property values municipal revenues, and higher retail sales.

Socially, cycling provides numerous physical and mental health benefits. Although different studies recognize the difficulty of attributing cycling to good health, they have managed to demonstrate that cycling improves cardiovascular fitness and may help manage weight. In addition to this, cycling generates an increase in general well-being beyond the benefits of increased physical activity. Creutzig et al. argue that there's a systematic bias favoring private cars in current street allocation, with car users having 3.5 times more space than non-car users on average. They advocate for prioritizing slow pedestrians and cyclists based on equity and efficiency principles related to mode share. According to them, streets should focus on people rather than modes, emphasizing a broader well-being perspective as streets serve not only as mobility spaces but also as places.

In addition to the previously discussed benefits, cycling has a milliard of environmental benefits. Replacing the usage of a car for a bike in a single day can reduce a person’s carbon emissions by 67%. In addition, bicycles do not add pollution to the atmosphere and produce little or no noise. Bicycles use space much more efficiently as they occupy 1/10th of the parking area of a car.

4.???????? Cycling in the United States

For decades, through its public policies, the United States has prioritized motorized vehicles as the primary mode of transportation. According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, in 2022, 77.3% of the workforce commutes were made by solo driving and carpooling. In contrast, in the same year, cycling only represented 0.7% of all modes of commuting in the United States. In addition, only 20.2% of the trips are made to earn a living while recreational purposes account for 60.3% of all trips. Signifying that cycling in the United States is primarily a leisure activity and not a significant mode of transportation.

These numbers vary drastically from state to state, for example, the District of Columbia has 9.7% of commuters who bike to work, and New York 5.3% compared to states like Tennessee or Alabama where the percentage is 1.2%. One factor that thwarts cycling in the United States is the unsafety of cycling which is caused due to cultural behaviors and infrastructural deficiencies. The fatality rate is 4.7 per 100 million km cycled and the injury rate per 100 million km cycled is 207.1, which can be contrasted with Germany where the rates are 1.3 and 44.2 respectively.

However, in recent years, transport equity has become increasingly important. There have been improvements in cycle infrastructure and extending bike sharing to low-income and minority neighborhoods. Public programs like the Active Community Environments (ACE) from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and private foundations like the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation promote cycling through urban design and donations to cycling infrastructure.

In addition to this, advocacy groups have been crucial to the increment of 4% of daily trips or more in some cities and the increment of bike lanes from 55km in 2006 to 684 km in 2018. The League of American Bicyclists (LAB) has lobbied with Congress and Federal agencies to increase federal funding from $239 million in 1997 to $1 billion in 2019 and to promote initiatives such as Routes to School, Vision Zero, and Complete Streets policies. People for Bikes is another organization that helps cities improve and expand biking infrastructure through grants, technical assistance, research, and helping elected officials get support for pro-bike initiatives.

5.???????? Cycling in Germany

Bicycles were invented by Karl Drais in 1817 and had military use due to their convenience of not using fuel, their ease of repair, their speed, and the lack of noise. Despite being the country that gave birth to bicycles, around the 1970s Germany was not one of Europe’s most bicycling-oriented countries. The wars in Germany and the lack of strong associations like the ANWB in the Netherlands, created a backlog in cycling in Germany. During the Nazi era, motorization became reinforced in the propaganda project and the expansion of the road network, and the construction of the Autobahn became the symbol of the regime's power. Simultaneously, the dominance of cars, backed by a potent industrial and automobile lobby, takes precedence in traffic, with bicycle infrastructure designed more for leisure cycling than daily commuting, lagging significantly behind the infrastructure seen in Denmark and the Netherlands.

?Since the 1970s, there has been a substantial increase in cycling rates in Germany, partly due to local cycling initiatives. Bicycles in Germany rose because of public policy implementation, and the influence of university students and cyclist associations. The bicycle share of all urban travel in Germany rose from 8% in 1972 to 12% in 1995, representing a 50% increase in bicycle modal split.

Pucher et al. divided the public policies to promote cycling into six categories that composed a comprehensive, multimodal transportation planning that has continued to evolve since its implementation in the 70s and 80s. The first one is the policies related to facilitating walking and cycling. These policies included the creation of extensive car-free zones that covered all city centers, the vast increase in bike lanes (from 1975 to 1995 bike lanes tripled to 31,236 km), the coordinated network covering rural and urban areas, and the urban infrastructure that prioritizes bikes. The second group of policies is related to the promotion of urban design sensitive to the needs of non-motorized. On these policies, the researchers placed the mixed-use residential developments where residents can reach cultural centers, shopping, and service establishments by foot, the location of parking lots behind buildings to make active facades, and the creation of safe and attractive crossings in highways, railroads, and rivers.

The third set of policies is the traffic calming measures in residential neighborhoods where they limited the speed to19mph or 30 km per hour and created physical barriers like raised intersections and crosswalks, traffic circles, road narrowing, zigzag routes, and speed bumps to reduce speed. Fourth, motor vehicles were restricted in cities by limiting speed limits to 31mph or 50km per hour, raising on and off-parking fees, and prohibiting truck traffic in residential neighborhoods. The fifth set of policies included rigorous traffic education for motorists and non-motorists. As an example, driving training is much more expensive than in the United States, and school children by the age of 10 have received extensive instruction on safe walking and bicycling practices. The final category corresponds to the strict enforcement of traffic regulations that favor cyclists and pedestrians.

In addition to these policies, university students and social associations advocated to influence elected officials to promote these policies. The social associations lobby the European Union to increase funding for cycling projects. Some of those associations include the German Cyclists Federation, the European Cyclists’ Federation 1983 (Euro Velo promoted the construction of the largest cycling network of 70,000km), and the German Cyclists Association (ADFC) (175,000 members from 16 state cycling organizations and 450 local cycling).

All these efforts have made Germany one of the countries with the strongest cycling mobility. By 2017, bicycle-oriented mobility represented 14% of all modes of transportation. In addition to this, women and children are overrepresented in the mode accounting for 49.2% of all riders and a ratio of 2.07 respectively.

A key challenge in Germany's cycling infrastructure is ensuring equity within the system. Hudde determined that higher education increased the predicted probability of bicycle usage by 50%. The researcher also found that the decisive factor was education and not income.?? For this reason, an area of improvement in the country is to ensure that cycling is equitable among citizens with different levels of education. The benefits of cycling are only reached if all citizens benefit from it.

6.???????? Case Study: Rhine- Rurh Region

As part of the Global Metropolitan Planning course, there was a field trip from September 11 to 17 to the Rhine-Rurh Region in Germany. For this reason, this region will serve as a case study of the policy implementation in Germany. Previously it was mentioned that one of the policies implemented included the coordination of a network covering rural and urban areas. The evaluated region is part of the Rhine Cycle Route a 1,450 km long bike lane that connects Switzerland, Germany, France, and the Netherlands. This route is part of the EuroVelo initiative that mobilizes 2.3 billion cycle tourism trips every year. This is a crucial economic opportunity as cycle tourism in Europe is worth €44 billion per year.

The trip to Germany included 3 days in the city of Cologne where the bicycle mode share represents 14.7% of all trips. In this city, women are overrepresented, and trips are distributed almost equally among all ages. As part of the city’s “Cologne Mobil 2025”, a plan to promote a sustainable transport system and clean air in the city, traffic by car will be reduced to 33 % and vastly increase cycle trips. To do this, in 2020 the city doubled the budget dedicated for renovating cycle paths in 2018 and 2019 combined. In addition to this, 26 road sections were converted into bicycle roads. As of 2020 the city counted with 17.1 km of bike lanes and had additional plans to promote and expand cycling in 2021. These policies and plans evidence the continuous work of the cities in this region to promote cycling since the 1970s.

On the site visit to Cologne, students visited Nachbarn 60, a car-free housing development with 1,550 residents. This development houses affordable and market-rate housing and was constructed from 2005 to 2013.31 It is remarkable that this development only has 0.2 cars per residential unit when 78% of the households in Germany owned at least one car in 2017. This development has an urban design infrastructure where bicycles and pedestrians are prioritized giving it a more residential and human scale. This development has earned multiple national and international recognitions such as the German Bicycle Prize in 2013. This kind of development is only possible in a place with a strong public transportation system, a consolidated cycle infrastructure network and a safe streetscape for pedestrians.

7.???????? Conclusion

In conclusion, the global commitment to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 places a significant responsibility on major polluting nations, including the United States, to explore sustainable alternatives in transportation. While electric vehicles are often at the forefront of discussions, Germany's success in promoting cycling presents a compelling and cost-effective solution. This study highlights the applicability of Germany's cycling policies to the U.S., considering shared characteristics such as high per-capita incomes, car ownership rates, and extensive road networks.

Cycling emerges as a multifaceted solution with economic, environmental, and social benefits. Germany's cycling initiatives, particularly in the Rhine-Rurh Region, showcase the transformative power of comprehensive policies, urban design sensitivity, and collaborative efforts from advocacy groups and associations. The success of Nachbarn 60, a car-free housing development in Cologne, demonstrates the positive impact of prioritizing cycling in city planning, contributing to reduced car dependency and a more human-scale urban environment.

As the United States grapples with challenges like safety concerns, cultural attitudes, and infrastructural deficiencies hindering widespread cycling adoption, Germany's experience provides valuable lessons. By prioritizing cycling as a mode of transportation and implementing policies that address safety, equity, and infrastructure, the U.S. can unlock the myriad benefits associated with cycling, contributing to a more sustainable and inclusive transportation landscape. There is not a single policy that will create a system change rather a holistic comprehensive, multimodal transportation planning that places humans and not cars at the center of the conversation.

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