These days, when winter is back, cycling is a bit less fun – but that could be different in May. Especially when you are on the new “Protected Bike Lanes”, which are being tested on five streets in Munich for the first time. These protected bike lanes are created by separating a lane with protective elements such as crash barriers, bollards or adhesive curbs, so that cars and bikes are separated from each other. The idea comes from the USA, but is also being implemented more and more often in German cities. The dividing elements are diverse, ranging from temporary structures used for temporary diversions to stable bollards.
The green-red majority of the city council initiated the experiment last summer. But it wasn’t that easy to select the test tracks. Ultimately, the choice fell on Brienner Strasse, two sections of Domagkstrasse, Kapuzinerstrasse and Plinganserstrasse. The cycle lanes are separated for at least a year in order to see which separating elements are best suited, even in different weather conditions – and which, for example, do not impede winter service.
Gudrun Lux, mobility coordinator of the green-pink parliamentary group, has high hopes for the project: “There is more and more bicycle traffic in Munich, but the most beautiful cycle lanes are of little use if cars drive on them or misuse them as parking spaces.” It is therefore right to quickly separate bicycle traffic from car traffic instead of waiting for costly ideal solutions. Andreas Schuster, cycling policy spokesman for the SPD/Volt parliamentary group, expressed a similar view: Such a “visible and understandable separation between cycling and car traffic not only has a decisive influence on people’s sense of security”, but would also be a “great tool to make our cycling infrastructure faster and safer to expand”.
The idea sounds simple, but finding the right streets wasn’t that easy
Even if the idea for the protected cycle lanes sounds simple, it was not easy for the traffic experts in the administration to find suitable roads. On such a route, there should be no parking spaces or loading zones next to the new bike lane. The Munich transport company (MVG) also pointed out that such cycle lanes are not desired on streets with regular bus or tram traffic or possible rail replacement traffic. After all, passengers from the bus or tram should be able to reach the edge of the road, including the bus stop.
During planning, it was also important to consider that the protective elements used to separate the cycle lane cannot be installed at junctions and driveways. In addition, although they are already in use in other cities, they are not officially certified for continuous operation. The city will therefore coordinate the pilot project with the government of Upper Bavaria, the city’s supervisory authority. The whole thing is financed by the local mobility flat rate from the building department. The affected district committees and residents will be informed in advance about the pilot project.