Cycling in Mallorca is a fine thing. Especially now at this time of year. When it’s still wintry north of the Alps, but the temperatures are already pleasant on the Balearic Islands, athletes come from all over to work off their winter fat on the island. Even professional teams are then on Mallorca and rush through the Tramuntana mountains to get fit for the big spring classics like Milan-Sanremo.
But in Palma de Mallorca itself, the capital? You can only imagine so-called beer bikes. Those pedaling counters, pedaled by at least half a dozen people, their hands tight on the glass. Alternately, beer runs down the throat and the refrains of party hits like “Drinking is also a sport” bubble up to the top. Usually nobody cares about steering.
But of course that’s just another of those Ballermann clichés. In fact, there is a 100 kilometer network of cycle paths in Palma – Munich has slightly more to offer with four times as many inhabitants. And another route is currently being added: from March it is to connect the city beach of Playa de Palma with the airport from Can Pastilla.
Of course, getting there and back only becomes really sustainable if you cycle from your place of residence to the Mediterranean Sea and take a pedal boat there. But at least a number of taxi rides and bus transfers could be avoided on Mallorca itself. Exhaust pollution and traffic chaos would be noticeably curbed if tourists soon covered the distance between the airport and the beach by bike. In addition, one or the other intoxication or hangover could be cycled out of the body in this way before heading home again, which makes the return flight more pleasant for everyone involved.
Wouldn’t that also be a role model for other cities? Take Munich, for example: The Federal Ministry of Transport has just reaffirmed that the Franz-Josef-Strauß Airport will not be connected to the long-distance train network until the end of time, i.e. absolutely no ICE connection.
So how do you get to Munich Airport? There would be the permanently congested Autobahn – risky. Or the fault-prone S-Bahn – even more risky. On top of that, it takes so long that you could cover the distance by bike in the same amount of time – if there were a well-developed cycle expressway from downtown Munich to the Erdinger Moos. You would do something for your fitness and on top of that save yourself the expensive parking or public transport ticket. And the problem of transporting luggage does not really arise in Munich either: the number of households in the state capital that do not have at least one cargo bike is now tending toward zero.
Tourists, on the other hand, who would like to be driven through the English Garden in rickshaws, could board right at the airport. American vacationers who particularly enjoy taking part in group bicycle sightseeing tours through Munich would, if they started from the gate, learn how to cycle into the city so well that the danger to life for passers-by would be reduced to an acceptable level sink.
As early as 1899, the Munich author Max Haushofer, who is hardly known today, developed the idea in his novel “Planetenfeuer” that people would one day travel with pedal cars on ropes stretched across the country. That would be the logical further development of the cycle path to Palma’s airport, with the airports as the hubs of an entire continental transport network. Haushofer’s novel takes place in 1999, which from today’s perspective is already in the past. But which infrastructure project will be finished in time?
Stefan Fischer likes bike paths. He would have to buy a bicycle basket to transport his luggage.
(Photo: Bernd Schifferdecker (Illustration))