More than 100,000 signatures: The Alliance Radentscheid Bayern submitted the application for a referendum to the Bavarian Ministry of the Interior on Friday. If the application is approved, in a second step at least one million voters would have to sign the “People’s petition to strengthen bicycle mobility in Bavaria”, or “Radentscheid” for short, the alliance announced on Friday.
A Bavarian bike law is necessary because current road traffic laws “prevent a better bike infrastructure and because procedures, responsibilities and standards are unclear,” says the alliance’s website. The state government had already promised in 2017 to double the proportion of bicycle traffic in Bavaria from ten to twenty percent by 2025. So far, however, it has only risen by one percentage point. This is due to the fact that “cycle paths, parking facilities and bicycle transport options” as well as an everyday cycle path network were missing in rural areas.
Taking bicycles on buses or trains is “expensive, not guaranteed or usually not even possible,” it said. A wheel law should oblige the state government “not only to talk about environmentally friendly mobility, but also to enable it quickly”.
The Bavarian Ministry of the Interior confirmed receipt of the application on Friday with a press release. The authority will now examine the legal requirements for the approval of the referendum within six weeks. If the decision is positive, it will then be determined when the two-week period for signing the referendum will begin. The alliance says it expects this registration period to be set before the Bavarian state elections in 2023 – “sometime in the summer of 2023,” according to those responsible.
According to their own information, the “Radentscheid Bayern” alliance was founded by the Allgemeine Deutscher Fahrrad-Club (ADFC) Bayern, the Verkehrsclub Deutschland Landesverband Bayern eV (VCD Bayern) and the eleven municipal Bavarian Radentscheids. The alliance is currently supported by BUND Naturschutz (BN) and five Bavarian state associations of political parties (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, SPD, ödp, DIE LINKE, Volt).