Press release | 28.11.2024
Municipal cycling campaign City Cycling still on the road to success
Winning municipalities of the world's largest cycling campaign honored yesterday in Munich
Munich / Frankfurt am Main, 28.11.2024. Yesterday evening, this year's winning municipalities of the Climate Alliance's City Cycling campaign were honored at the Old Town Hall in Munich. The awards were presented by Ministerial Director Dr. Thomas Gruber, Head of Office of the Bavarian State Ministry of Housing, Building and Transport, the third mayor of the state capital Munich, Verena Dietl, and André Muno, Executive Director of Climate Alliance Services. This year's City Cycling results certainly gave reason to celebrate: with more than 1.1 million participants from 2,886 municipalities, the campaign was able to build on last year's successes. Together, the participants covered almost 218 million kilometers by bike and thus not only avoided 36,000 tons of CO2 compared to a car journey, but also sent out a strong signal for climate protection and the promotion of cycling.
Bavaria's Transport Minister Christian Bernreiter, represented at the event by Ministerial Director Dr. Thomas Gruber says: “For several years now, we have been driving forward the strengthening of cycling throughout Bavaria with consistent planning and implementation of a wide range of measures. We are also actively supporting the local authorities in this: an important and indispensable component of this is city cycling - the consistently strong participation in Bavaria is proof of this.”
Verena Dietl, Mayor of the City of Munich, also emphasises the importance of the connection between the expansion of cycling infrastructure and effective municipal climate protection: “Less CO2-intensive automobility and more fast, flexible and climate-friendly means of transport such as the bicycle - that is the challenge cities like Munich are facing. To make the transition as easy as possible for citizens, we need a cycling infrastructure that allows them to get to their destination easily and safely. We have been working on this for years and this year's figures for Munich City Cycling show that we are on the right track: Never before have so many Munich residents taken part in city cycling as this year - a great result!”
For André Muno, Executive Director of Climate Alliance Services, an even more committed approach is needed from politicians and administrative levels in order to achieve the urgently needed transition in mobility: “City Cycling is a good way to get people on bikes and the topic of cycling on the agenda. But the efforts must not stop there. Participation in the campaign must be followed by action in the municipalities and the commitment of citizens must be translated into courageous transport planning and sufficient cycling promotion. Otherwise, there is a risk that important campaigns such as City Cycling will merely become a fig leaf in transport policy.”
City Cycling is an international campaign by Climate Alliance Services and is supported by the partners Ortlieb, ABUS, e-motion, linexo by WERTGARANTIE, Busch + Müller, Schwalbe, WSM and Paul Lange & Co.
In Bavaria, the campaign is supported by AGFK Bayern and the Bavarian State Ministry for Housing, Construction and Transport.
Further information
Contact
Cordula Richter and Sebastian Reisch
City Cycling Communications Team, Climate Alliance Services
+49 69 7171 39 -47 | kommunikation@stadtradeln.de
Sarah Mekjian
Communications Director, Climate Alliance
+49 69 7171 39 -20 | communications@climatealliance.org
