Last week the German national cyclists’ association ADFC released its 5^th “Cycling climate test”. This survey is the biggest of its kind in the world. . 80000 Germans participated in the poll to give their opinion on the cycling friendliness of their city. 

The winners.
Photo credit ADFC

And the winner is Münster! Not really news for Germans asthis city with an impressive modal share of 47% likes to showcase itself as THE cycling city in Germany. 

What can other advocates learn from the Fahrradkilmatest ?

For an advocate there is never enough support so showing public concern is a big asset to advocacy. This is what the Klimatest will bring to ADFC. It shows to the authorities that people are concerned by cycling conditions in their city. 80 000 people represents an important part of the population.

The average German assessment of cycling condition has worsened since the last survey in 2005. The message from this highlighted by the ADFC president is that German people no longer consider bad cycling conditions as acceptable.

Furthermore it also helps the organization itself to refine its advocacy strategy as it highlights the issues that really matters to cyclists. And then it is also a way to engage the cycling population in this work.

The ranking itself attracts media attention and can make ADFC voice be heard in the general public and amongst the politicians.

Finally as this is the 5^th edition of the survey, the trends in city ranking bring maybe the most important evidence to cycling advocates. It shows that cycling promotion works. These kinds of incentives are key to triggering decision makers to take a step towards cycling development in their cities. In the spotlight this year was the city of Karlsruhe who received the prize for the best improvement .This city from the south of Germany rose from the 10^th to the 3^rd rank in 7 years.

The survey

The 27 question survey took place in autumn 2012. More than 80 000 answers were collected. Thanks to the introduction of an internet tool the number of answers rose from 26 000 in 2005. 332 cities have received the minimum amount of answers to enter the results including all the 80 German cities above 100 000 inhabitants.

The award ceremony took place in Berlin hosted by the State Secretary for Transport. According to Mr Jan Mücke this evaluation helps “cites which have been working for more cycling to go on in this direction; but it can also trigger the starters cities to follow.” He stated that the Federal government was willing to work in that sense with the its recently launched national 2020 cycling plan.

Read more (including the full results and surveys in German) on ADFC website http://www.adfc.de/9205

• Das Städteranking im Überblick

• Ergebnistabelle Städte ausführlich

• Ergebnistabelle_nach Bundesländern

• ADFC-Fahrradklima-Test 2012 Fragebogen