Saxony lags behind in city cycling

Cycling for a good climate - that's the idea behind the city cycling campaign, which is gaining more and more supporters across Germany every year. In Saxony, 18 municipalities are also taking part this year. That's more than last year (11), but compared to other federal states, it's rather low. "City cycling is not yet as well established in Saxony as it is in other federal states," explained Sebastian Reisch, spokesperson for the Climate Alliance. City cycling is a campaign run by the network.

The aim of the campaign is for people to cycle as many distances as possible for 21 days. The aim is to raise awareness of cycling as an environmentally friendly form of transportation. If the municipality in which you live participates, you can take part in the city cycling campaign. The kilometers cycled are recorded. Every year, prizes are awarded to winning municipalities in various categories.

Leipzig and Dresden have long been involved

In Saxony, Leipzig was the first city to take part in the campaign in 2009. Last year, the trade fair city took third place among cities with over 500,000 inhabitants. Leipzig residents cycled more than 3.5 million kilometers during the campaign period. According to Climate Alliance, Dresden is also one of the veterans of city cycling.

Compared to other federal states, the 18 participating cities in Saxony are rather small. In Rhineland-Palatinate, which is similar in size to the Free State, 124 municipalities are taking part this year. In the neighboring federal state of Saxony-Anhalt, there are 31 municipalities and in Thuringia 36.

"One reason for this is probably that Saxony is the only federal state that does not financially support the participation of its municipalities," said Alliance spokesperson Reisch. In many other federal states, participation has increased as a result of the support. Saxony-Anhalt began funding in 2023 - with a clear effect. In the previous year, only four municipalities had participated there.

Free state examines funding

The Saxon Ministry of Transport announced that although the Free State of Saxony welcomed the city cycling campaign and also saw a positive effect of the campaign, it had "unfortunately not yet been able to provide funding for the participation fees for various reasons". "We are currently intensively examining how support for Saxon municipalities can be organized in the future." However, because the administration is committed to economic efficiency and economy, the administrative costs must also be weighed up.

Last year, 2,835 municipalities nationwide took part in the city cycling campaign. Around 1.1 million people took to the pedals. They cycled around 228 million kilometers.