Cycling for the environment – City Cycling 2024

CITY CYCLING – What’s behind it?

How many everyday journeys can be made in a climate-friendly way by bike instead of by car or other fossil-fuel-powered means of transportation?

Answers to this question can be found with the help of the CITY CYCLING initiative. The competition on the subject of climate awareness addresses precisely the question posed at the beginning and is intended to encourage a more conscious choice of means of transportation. The campaign was launched by the Climate Alliance of European Cities with Indigenous Rainforest Peoples | Alianza del Clima e.V. – or the Climate Alliance for short.

CITY CYCLING – How does it work?

For 21 days, as many everyday journeys as possible should be made by bike in a climate-friendly way. It doesn’t matter whether the participants in the competition already cycle every day or cycle infrequently. Every kilometer counts, especially if you would otherwise have covered it by car.

The results of the nationwide campaign show how many people are already cycling and help to protect the environment and the climate. At the same time, the initiative focuses political attention on the importance of a well-developed cycling infrastructure: the competition gives participating local politicians an impression of where their own municipality is already bicycle-friendly and where improvements still need to be made.

Statistics from previous years

The increasing importance of this topic is also reflected in the figures for recent years:

In 2018, just under 800 municipalities and more than 290,000 active cyclists took part; by 2021, this figure had risen to over 2,000 municipalities and 790,000 active cyclists. In 2023, around 2,700 municipalities took part in the campaign. At the same time, the number of active cyclists rose to over 1.1 million. In total, well over 227 million kilometers were tracked by participants in 2023, saving over 36,000 tons of CO2.

The STADTRADELN team of Softway AG

Softway AG has also been taking part in the campaign for more climate-conscious behavior in everyday life for many years and is once again providing a team for the district of Bamberg in 2024. Here are the statistics of the “Softway Cyclists” for this year: Our 10 actively cycling colleagues cycled a total of 1,198 kilometers and thus saved over 190 KG CO2. You can find some pictures of our team members below.