Cycling in Hanover
Poster for the sales point at Georgstrasse 34 in Hanover , anonymous artist, around 1900
Cycling in Hanover is a common way of getting around Hanover , the state capital of Lower Saxony . With 19% in the modal split 2008, Hanover achieved the highest value together with Bremen if one assumes the 15 largest cities in Germany.
development
The share of bicycle traffic in the modal split was 12% in 2002, rose to 13% in 2004 and, together with Bremen , reached 19% in 2008, the highest value among the German half-million cities before Munich , Berlin , Leipzig or Hamburg , each of which was more or less have less ambitious programs to become a bicycle city . This value was maintained until 2011. The city wants to increase this share in the future, 25% are planned by 2025.
Infrastructure
Duration
The residential areas are almost completely equipped with 30 km / h zones . On some routes have been since the 1980s bicycle streets as the first to set up Glebe Road in Linden-Nord . In the years since 2015, a few more bicycle streets have been set up, the Große Barlinge have now been rebuilt and, with the exception of one place, completely given priority over side streets (previously right before left).
With a number of exceptions, one-way streets within 30 km / h zones are free for bicycle traffic in the opposite direction, and many one-way streets with higher permissible speeds can be crossed with cycle paths or other measures for bicycle traffic in the opposite direction. Most of the dead ends are marked accordingly, provided that they are passable for pedestrians and / or cyclists. Almost all pedestrian zones in the city center and the city districts are free for bicycle traffic outside of the times of heavy pedestrian traffic, some central axes also open all day, e.g. B. the avenue in the western Georgstraße , short sections of the Lister Meile , Limmerstraße and Egestorfstraße.
With the creation of protective strips in Podbielskistraße , almost all major roads with heavy traffic are now equipped with bicycle traffic facilities, mostly in the form of high-sided cycle paths with a typical Hanoverian design, with a red, cross-laid brick strip on both sides of a driving area for cycling with dark composite paving . As a rule, a safety separation lane is structurally created for the roadway or the parking lane. In some streets with a great separation effect, for example with a median or city railway in the middle, there are partly two-way cycle paths on both sides, now almost completely along the City-Ring and on some larger arterial roads such as sections of Hildesheimer Straße or Lavesallee on Waterlooplatz .
In the Eilenriede, as well as in some of the larger green areas and green corridors, there are bicycle connections, whereby there are predominantly independent, asphalted cycle paths next to or independent of sidewalks, around the Maschsee and along the Herrenhäuser Allee with comfortable widths of up to 4.00 m. Some of these cycle paths, like the cycle route at the Maschsee lido, are expressly open to inline skaters .
There are bicycle connections along the Leine , Ihme and Föse as well as the Mittelland Canal , where, with the mostly rather low pedestrian traffic, mostly common paths are used, some of which are asphalted or paved, but mostly with a water-bound ceiling. By using the underpasses at intersecting streets, cycling without intersections is possible over long stretches without disruptive car traffic. The first road along the Leine that you have to wait on is upstream in Döhren, so that you can drive upstream across the urban area for more than 10 km without crossing cars.
Planned projects
Cycle expressway Hanover - Lehrte
In 2016, the city council of Hanover commissioned the construction of the first rapid cycle route (RSW).
In the course of the planned RSW in Hanover begins on Berliner Allee, crosses under the Hanover - Lehrte railway line and roughly follows it in the further course. Existing roads are to become bicycle roads with structural privileges for bicycle traffic. However, completely new sections are also to be created that are only created for bicycle and pedestrian traffic.
The width of the cycle path is to be between 3.00 and 4.50 meters in the future, with the minimum width of pure cycle traffic without pedestrians and drivers. The route should have a total length of approx. 18 km. The construction costs were estimated at 3.8 million euros. The start of construction for the 1st construction phase was planned for 2019.
Cycle expressway Hanover - Garbsen
A second fast bike will lead from the Steintor in Hanover via the Herrenhausen Gardens, Letter and Marienwerder to the University's new mechanical engineering campus in Garbsen. The planned route is to be 13 km long. The route will be completely asphalted, illuminated, as free from traffic lights as possible and, for the most part, at least 4 meters wide.
The route is currently being worked out. A possible start of construction could be 2020.
Bicycle parking
In Hanover, bicycle parking facilities have been regularly set up in the public street space since the 1990s , mostly in the form of simple bicycle brackets for two bikes, with extra-long bike brackets that allow up to four bikes to be leaned on and connected at high traffic areas such as the city center and at the main train station. Numerous storage options are also available in public buildings such as the New Town Hall or event locations such as the Niedersachsenstadion . Some housing associations or homeowners offer high-quality, covered and lockable bicycle parking spaces for their tenants, some in the front yard. In Fundstrasse there is a bicycle shed based on the Hamburg model, with a special permit in the public street.
Bike rental and service
The two bike stations at the main train station offer the typical bike station service including a washing facility and lend 80 bikes. Behind the train station there are a few call bikes at a borrowing and returning location. Pedelecs and electrically assisted cargo bikes can be rented at Bicycle Station II and two other locations in the city center, and cargo bikes are currently free of charge thanks to an e-mobility funding program (by prior arrangement). In March 2015, ADFC and a cargo bike specialty shop in Hanover launched the first project for free cargo bikes "Hannah!" started. It enables free borrowing at changing locations in the region. Nextbike was active in the city with its rental bike system until 2015, but only with a few locations and low usage figures. OBike has been represented here since 2017 . After oBike went bankrupt, the bikes were removed and replaced by the orange rental bikes from MoBike.
Since the early 1980s, Hanover has been issuing the cycle path and leisure map on a scale of 1: 20,000, which is drawn up and regularly updated by the city with the support of the ADFC . The urban area is covered by the cycle route planner for the state of Lower Saxony and other cycle route planners such as Naviki , BBBike .
Bicycles can be taken all day long on the Hanover S-Bahn , on the Hanover Stadtbahn and the Üstra buses (with exclusion times in rush hour traffic from Monday to Friday, before 8:30 a.m. and between 3:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.). Bicycles can only be taken on regional buses from 7:00 p.m. onwards, all day on weekends. A single ticket must be purchased on regional trains within the Hanover region and on the S-Bahn during rush hour.
Tourist and leisure cycle traffic
Hanover is not connected to the primary German long-distance cycle network of the D routes . From the Lower Saxony network, which was developed on behalf of the Lower Saxony Ministry of Economics, but was not fully implemented, three routes were to run via Hanover: the Leine-Heide-Radweg (N-Netz 4) , the West-Ost-Radweg (N-Netz 10) and the Weser- Elbe cycle path (N-Netz 12). Technically, all three routes exist today with minor restrictions regarding the nature of the route; However, only the Leine-Heide-Radweg, which follows the course of Leine and Ihme in the urban area, has received an official status with signage and its own website. The other two routes have not been further developed, but now function as regional cycling routes. Furthermore, the initiative long-distance cycle route Amsterdam-Berlin runs from Osnabrück and Minden via Hanover to Braunschweig and Magdeburg.
A number of recreational routes, signposted with destination and route signs, run through the urban area under the responsibility of the Hanover region , the central meeting point of which is the north bank of the Maschsee, not far from the New Town Hall. In the urban area, connections are predominantly used that were already marked as urban leisure routes with animal symbols in the early 1980s (at that time pure route guidance), with only a few destination signs in the form of the signpost mushrooms used in Lower Saxony. The urban leisure routes have now been replaced by six routes that are integrated into the regional signposting.
Administrative structure and framework
Since the early 1980s, the city of Hanover has had a bicycle traffic officer within the administrative office responsible for civil engineering . At that time there were also for the first time separate planning guidelines for bicycle traffic in urban streets, which went beyond the then nationwide recommendations for the construction, operation and maintenance of bicycle traffic facilities (ERA 82) . In the (then) Green Spaces Office, too, the topic was seriously pursued relatively early up to the management level. With the long-standing red-green alliances in the city council, there was also regular political attention, special consideration in road planning and financial resources. A cycling coordinator also works for the Hanover region.
When the building blocks of the traffic development plan were drawn up in the early 1990s, the city administration made it possible to publish two reports from the traffic initiatives ( ADFC , Bürgerinitiative Umwelt (BiU), VCD and FUSS e.V. ) on the desired traffic development in the city center and on a bicycle traffic concept , as well as an expert opinion from the then action group City for All , an association of tradespeople and business people, on their ideas about inner-city traffic. On this basis too, numerous decisions were made for the city center, some of which had far-reaching traffic consequences, such as the closure of the bypass at Ernst-August-Platz for car traffic, the expansion of the pedestrian zones, for example in Andreaestrasse and Grosse Packhofstrasse, and the creation of additional crossing points at previously acting as a barrier city ring.
particularities
Bicycle taxis operate in the city center in the summer .
The monthly Critical Mass event takes place in Hanover regularly on the last Friday of the month and starts at 6:30 p.m. on the Klagesmarkt .
reception
“But the best cities to visit as a visitor are probably the ones that are 'on the go,' who are working hard to bring cycling forward. Cities that have their own bicycle budgets and staff, who spend money on infrastructure and campaigns, and drive ambitious plans. Examples of this are Munich, Frankfurt and Hanover. "
literature
- Karin Brockmann: Hanover rides a bike. History - Sport - Everyday Life , Braunschweig: Kuhle Buchverlag Braunschweig, 1999, ISBN 3-923696-90-6
Web links
- Cycle path and leisure map on Hannover.de
- Network concept for cycling on hannover.de
- Action program 2016-2017 on hannover.de
- Citizens' Initiative Environmental Protection: Bicycle Traffic Hannover 2030. What we can learn from Copenhagen
Individual evidence
- ↑ Mobility in the Hanover Region 2011. (PDF; 1.3 MB) Report. infas (Institute for Applied Social Science), 2013, p. 48 , accessed on July 14, 2016 .
- ↑ Model for cycling. (PDF; 1.5 MB) State capital Hanover , 2010, accessed on July 14, 2016 .
- ↑ SIM - DS 1856/2018. Retrieved December 28, 2018 .
- ↑ Bike station Hannover, accessed on July 10, 2016
- ↑ Call a Bike in Hanover , on callabike.de
- ↑ PedsBlitz Hannover on the pages of the Hannover Region, accessed on July 10, 2016
- ↑ Hannah! Cargo bikes for Hanover
- ↑ Bernd Haase: 500 rental bicycles are coming into town. In: Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung . Retrieved November 17, 2017 .
- ↑ Cycle path and leisure map also available online in the Hannover GIS
- ↑ Lower Saxony cycle route planner
- ↑ GVH on taking bicycles with you, with an overview, accessed on July 10, 2016
- ↑ a b c Brochure Hannover saddles up
- ↑ Leine-Heide-Radweg (N-Netz 4). Archived from the original ; accessed on August 29, 2017 .
- ^ West-East cycle path (N-Netz 10). Archived from the original ; accessed on August 29, 2017 .
- ↑ Weser-Elbe-Radweg (N-Netz 12). Archived from the original ; accessed on August 29, 2017 .
- ↑ Long- distance cycle route Amsterdam-Berlin , on bike-amsterdam-berlin.info
- ↑ List of responsibilities and services for cycling
- ^ Region Hannover: change: get on. Action concept for cycling. Hanover 2015.
- ^ Critical Mass Hanover. (Homepage). Critical Mass Hannover, accessed on July 21, 2019 : “On the last Friday of every month. 6:30 p.m. Klagesmarkt. "
- ^ David Greve: Radverkehr: Why Germany has all the answers. ADFC Federal Association, January 23, 2013, accessed on July 18, 2016 .