Decline in city cycling: mileage in Westmecklenburg sinks!

Decline in city cycling: mileage in Westmecklenburg sinks!

In Westmecklenburg, this year's city cycling has proven that the topic of cycling is still at the top of the agenda. A good 3,000 participants have plunged cycling in the past three weeks and have covered a total of around 500,000 kilometers. Especially in Schwerin, where more than half of this route - about 276,000 kilometers - was covered, the passion for cyclists is shown. Nevertheless, there was a decline of almost 9,000 kilometers compared to the previous year, which raises some questions.

Around 1,400 people in Schwerin have actively contributed, while around 750 participants were counted in the Northwest Mecklenburg district, which contested a total of 146,000 kilometers. Here, too, a decline of around 7,000 kilometers had to be recorded compared to 2024. In the district of Ludwigslust-Parchim, around 870 cyclists bumped up a total of 78,000 kilometers, which also means 2,000 kilometers less than in the previous year. Overall, the cyclists saved around 80 tons of CO₂ through their performance, which underlines the positive influence of cycling on the climate. According to the NDR, city cycling is a nationwide initiative that motivates citizens to collect their bicycle kilometers for their municipalities and thereby also to initiate active changes City bikes , this competition should be pointed out both local political decision-makers and the citizens to the need for a better cycling infrastructure in order to facilitate the change from the car to the bike.

The advantages of cycling are clear: fresh air, more movement, less traffic jams and parking problems. However, in order to promote a sustainable change, a comprehensive cycling infrastructure is essential. It is therefore important that local politicians take perspectives from cyclists during the campaign to recognize the strengths and weaknesses of the current infrastructure.

a focus on the environment

The city cycling has been orchestrated by the climate alliance since 2008, a network of over 1,700 members from 27 European countries. Most recently, around 300,000 people from almost 900 municipalities took part in the competition and scored an incredible 60 million kilometers together. These numbers seem to prove that there are more and more people who are ready to contribute to climate protection and choose an active form of mobility points out the environmental Federal Office .

It will be exciting to observe how the numbers will develop next year and whether a new record can be achieved through more awareness and possibly also by improved cycling infrastructure. It remains to be hoped that the kilometers collected will not only benefit the individual cyclists in the future, but also serve as an incentive for further improvements in the entire region.