To bike or rather not to bike in Freiburg

Congratulations to Madison, the fifth most 'bikeable' city in the States behind Minneapolis, Portland, Ore., San Francisco (with all those hills), and Boston.

A bicyclist riding along Lake Mendota near the UW-Madison campus in Madison
(©Wisconsin State Journal)

Freiburg is known as a bicycle city too. So I scanned the internet to learn about its ranking. It was disappointing that Freiburg did not figure among Germany's first ten bicycle cities. These are: Münster, Kiel, Oberhausen, Hannover, Bremen, Leipzig, Bonn, Magdeburg, Bielefeld, and Karlsruhe.

I must admit that I am not a keen cyclist except for my yearly bicycle tour. Freiburg's city is within walking distance (20 minutes) from my apartment, so I feel no need to use a bicycle. Still, I am mainly concerned with cycling or cyclists in Freiburg because of their bad behavior towards pedestrians who live dangerously. 

The other day, a Kampfradler (fighting cyclist) ran over a friend of mine on a zebra crossing. The guy did not stop, and when the victim stood up, she luckily only had a broken finger. In fact, in Baden-Württemberg Freiburg has the sad reputation of having the highest bicycle accident rate.

Last year two people died, 83 were heavily injured, and 461 had 'only' light injuries. It does not help that Münster has a bad reputation, too, for cyclists ignoring red traffic lights, cycling on narrow walkways in the wrong direction, and slaloming at high speed through pedestrian zones. In addition, only children (this is an obligation) and old people like me (my brain is the only part of my body that still has some value) wear helmets.

To remedy the situation, Freiburg and Berlin started a two-year campaign called Rücksichtsvoll im Straßenverkehr (When participating in road traffic, be considerate).

The advertising for the campaign is strange. Green people look with disgust at the blue can. Cans had been banned in Germany for the sake of recyclable bottles and are now celebrating a merry resurrection. Will the campaign help to make life safer for Freiburg's pedestrians? I doubt. 

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