The General German Bicycle Club (ADFC) is expecting thousands of cyclists to take part in a rally from Munich and the surrounding area towards Königsplatz on Sunday, April 21st. They will then have free travel on many roads that are otherwise risky or taboo with their trekking and cargo bikes, mountain and e-bikes as well as the good old bike. The Mittlerer Ring and the A95 between Luise-Kiesselbach-Platz and the Munich Kreuzhof exit will be closed to car traffic.
Last year, around 17,000 Munich residents, large and small, old and young, came to the rally, during which a section of the motorway was closed to them for the first time: the A96 between Sendling and Blumenau. It was a happy Sunday and it should be like that again this year.
The reason for the rally to Königsplatz, where a rally with music will take place from 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m., is to prioritize good cycle paths in the city and the surrounding area. “Motorways are the backbone of German transport policy with the highest safety and quality standards: wide, flat, safe and continuous. This is how cycle paths must be,” says ADFC chairman Andreas Schön. However, hundreds of thousands of commuters would be “pressed” into the city every day via the motorways, leaving no room for cycle paths.
It has been five years since 160,000 signatures were collected in a first step for the Munich cycling decision. The aim at that time was to use a citizens’ initiative to bring about a town hall resolution that would strengthen the bicycle infrastructure in Munich. In the same year, the city council decided to adopt the goals of the cycling decision – but not many cycle paths have been created since then.
15 demonstrations are planned for April 21st, which will be accompanied by the police. These are the routes and meeting points in Munich:
- West route (Length 28 kilometers): Starts at around 12.30 p.m. on the Südliche Auffahrtsallee in Nymphenburg.
- North route (30 kilometers): It starts at around 12.30 p.m. at the park-and-ride parking lot at Ungererstrasse 214 in the student town.
- East route (25 kilometers): Also starts at 12.30 p.m. at Welfenstraße 56 at Tassiloplatz.
- South route (20 kilometers): Starts at around 1:05 p.m. at the Siemenswerke green area on Baierbrunner Straße.
Trains also depart from some surrounding communities. These are the departure locations and times:
- Erding (72 kilometers): Starts at the Erding S-Bahn on Lagerhausstrasse at 9.30 a.m.
- Freising (70 kilometers): Departure is at 9:15 a.m. from the park-and-ride parking lot at Freising train station.
- Petershausen (65 kilometers): The start is also here at the train station, the departure time is 9.55 a.m.
- Grafing (56 kilometers): Departure is at 10.30 a.m. from the Volksfestplatz.
- Wooden churches (53 kilometers): It starts from the Holzkirchen market square at 11 a.m.
- Geretsried (51 kilometers): Meeting point is the municipality’s town hall, departure at 10:30 a.m.
- Herrsching (50 kilometers): Start at the train station in Herrsching at 11.50 a.m.
- Garching (43 kilometers): Meeting point is at Helmut-Karl-Platz at Schwanenbrunnen at 11.45 a.m.
Stops along the way and opportunities to meet other cyclists are listed with times on the ADFC pages. The longest bike tours are made by those who… Rosenheim, augsburg and Weilheim start. The exact routes and starting points for these tours are listed online. There is no special children’s or family route designated this year.