Cyclists are apparently never really satisfied. Now, in winter, the outrage portal Twitter is again overflowing with photos of poorly cleared bike paths, along with correspondingly salty comments. And if there is a good example of a cleanly cleared cycle path, as a tweet from Monday of this week from Plinganserstraße in Munich shows, there is guaranteed to be someone with a lousy counterexample.
Whether it’s storming or snowing or black ice is turning the streets into slides: Many people can’t or don’t want to do without cycling. The number of winter cyclists has increased so much in recent years that the building department has intensified winter service. But because the cycle paths are not salted, the clearing service also brings up grit – and that is both a blessing and a curse for the cyclists. On the one hand, the grit makes it possible to cycle with some degree of non-slipping. On the other hand, the cyclists always curse the urban scree when they have flat tires again.
In recent years there have even been rumors that the city has changed its grit at some point and is now pouring harsher stuff onto the paths. The building department does not confirm this and instead refers to the “H BeStreu”, the “Instructions for the procurement of thawing and deadening grit for winter service”. This set of rules, devised by the Research Society for Roads and Traffic, defines which material municipalities should use to grit the streets. The chippings used in the city area are gravel moraine chippings from gravel works in the Munich area. This is produced by mechanically crushing gravel to the desired grain size, which is usually two to five millimeters.
For ecological reasons, Munich does not use road salt on cycle paths, so that the so-called roadside greenery, commonly known as trees, is not damaged. On 70 percent of the built cycle paths, the meltwater runs into the tree ditch, the salt would seep away with it. It is therefore only used on the main road network, on roads with scheduled bus services and at dangerous points. The building department uses brine, i.e. a salt-water solution.
Grit in the parquet is also not popular
The amounts of grit that accumulate each season differ depending on the weather conditions. In the winter of 2020/2021, a total of 14,000 tonnes of road salt and 17,000 tonnes of grit ended up on the streets in Munich with 22 snowfall days and 92 frost days. In the winter of 2021/2022, on the other hand, there were only 17 days of snow and 89 days of frost, with a consumption of 7,400 tons of salt and 9,000 tons of grit.
The grit from cycle paths and footpaths, which is also often carried into apartments with the soles of shoes and is therefore only moderately popular with owners of parquet floors, is swept up and recycled during longer warm phases. As was once the norm, it won’t be left lying around until spring. However, the recycling chippings are no longer suitable for winter service. By lying on the street for weeks, it loses its angularity and is then above all still suitable as a building material.
No edge, no grip: Experienced cyclists know how to deal with the wintry grit. The ADFC Munich, for example, advises always paying attention to the tire material. New or even puncture-proof covers prevented flat tires. And if you still have to patch a tube, you should always feel the inside of the jacket for stones, otherwise the next flat tire will come on the next ride. In the opinion of the cycling club, however, one thing works best: Sweep up the grit as quickly as possible after thawing. That still takes far too long in Munich.