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Wilhelmsburg bike week, May 2010
Cyclists don't have an easy time of things in Hamburg. You certainly know what I mean if
you've ever tried to slip your way past a passing truck on Max-Brauer-Allee or dodged the
crater-like potholes along the routes in Eimsbüttel. In other German cities like Munich or
Münster,
you can enjoy wide bike paths — but good luck finding something like that in Hamburg.
Will things ever change? The Wilhelmsburg bike week certainly stirred up hope that they might.
In May, a number of politicians, city planners and interested residents met to discuss ways of
making Hamburg a more bike-friendly city. It was no coincidence that this meeting was held in
Wilhelmsburg, a Hamburg suburb which also happens to be Europe's largest river island: after all,
in 2013 it will host two major German expos, the international construction exhibition and the
international garden show. Right now there are lots of urban planners investing plenty of brainpower
into the area, and Wilhelmsburg has become the test venue for all kinds of different residential
models. Soon the city office for urban development and the environment will also be located here.
And you can get around in this part of town quite easily on two wheels: between the presentations,
there were bike tours that took you to places such as the nearby nature preserve in Heuckenlock.
One of the highlights of the event was testing electric bikes. You pedal them as you would a normal
bike, but electricity is giving you an extra boost, so before you know it, you're cruising along at 40 km/h.
Is this the future of cycling? At a price of €2,000 for even basic models, it may well take a while for
electric bikes to become an everyday sight. But it was still fun to take one for a test drive.
At the end of my Inspiration Day in Wilhelmsburg, I got back on my own bike and cycled my way
through the old Elbe tunnel back into town. Along the way, I came by a construction site that went
on and on; the freshly asphalted road was still steaming. One of the workers told me that a new bike
path was being built here, much wider than the usual paths for cyclists in Hamburg. Maybe there's
hope after all that Hamburg will someday be a bike-friendly city.
Ansgar, PR consultant; Wilhelmsburg bike week / Hamburg, May 2010
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