Frequently asked questions

See here for answers to some of the questions most frequently asked about CITY CYCLING. Select a topic to refine your search or type something directly into the search field below.

Rules

For municipalities

App

Background

RADar!

To cover as many kilometres as possible by bike, wheelchair or handbike for both private and professional reasons.

  • Members of the local parliament in participating municipalities
  • Inhabitants of participating municipalities
  • Anyone who works, belongs to a club or attends school or university in a participating municipality

The inclusion and participation of all people is very important to us. Wheelchair users can of course enter the journeys and kilometres they travel in their wheelchair during the CITY CYCLING campaign. Distances covered by handbike also count.

All participating municipalities are listed in the overview available here. Should your municipality not feature in this list, then why not approach your municipality (administration, town/city council, etc.) and suggest that they participate in the campaign?

  • Your municipality (i.e. town, city, municipality, rural district) first needs to be registered for CITY CYCLING. The local coordinators are then responsible for organising and running the local campaign – please contact them first should you have any questions.
  • Once your municipality has be registered, you can sign up on city-cycling.org/radlerbereich, then either join an existing team or form a new one. If you decide to form a new team, you will automatically be designated the team captain.
  • To participate in CITY CYCLING you must belong to a team – after all, climate protection and cycling promotion require teamwork! Teams of just two people are allowed though. Alternatively, each municipality has an “open” team that you’re able to join. If you’re the only active cyclist in a team when the seven-day grace period for entering kilometres after the campaign ends, you’ll automatically be moved to the municipality’s “open” team.
  • You’re able to use anything classified as a bicycle in the German Highway Code (StVO) to cycle.

No, there aren’t any age restrictions for CITY CYCLING. Everyone is able to get involved. That being said, participants aged under 16 years must obtain verbal consent from a parent or guardian first.

Yes, they can. Both the cyclist and the person being transported can record the kilometres.

The inclusion and participation of all people is very important to us. Wheelchair users can of course enter the journeys and kilometres they travel in their wheelchair during the CITY CYCLING campaign. Distances covered by handbike also count.

Two-factor authentication aims to ensure that cyclists’ data is kept even safer. In addition to your password, you’ll also be asked to enter an automatically generated code when you log in. This will either be sent to the email address you provided when you signed up or can be retrieved via a time-based one-time password (TOTP) authenticator app. Various TOTP authenticator apps are available in the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store.

It’s easy to activate and deactivate the two-factor authentication in your account settings.

Coordinators must use two-factor authentication to log in if they want to download the data and results for their municipality as an Excel spreadsheet. The data cannot be downloaded otherwise.

Cyclists have the option of additionally securing their account with two-factor authentication.

The CITY CYCLING campaign takes place every year between 1 May and 30 September 2021. In the municipalities themselves, the campaign runs on 21 consecutive days to advocate climate protection and promote cycling. The participating municipalities are free to choose the exact campaign period.

  • Participants with internet access are able to sign up for the online cycle log by entering their name and email address as soon as the log has been activated for their municipality. After signing up, the kilometres cycled can be entered here, which will then automatically be credited to the team and municipality.
  • Participants with a smartphone are able to use the CITY CYCLING app (for Android and iOS systems) to enter their kilometres. The app is very handy (it is no longer necessary to log in via the website) and it is even possible to simply use your mobile phone’s GPS function to calculate the exact route and kilometres covered.
  • Participants with no internet access are able to sign up directly with the local coordinator for their municipality. A kilometre log form is available to record the kilometres by hand. The details of the local contact(s) can be found on the subpages of the participating municipalities.

 

 

 

 

We strive to avoid incorrect kilometre entries, hence a message will appear if you attempt to enter more than 150 km per day for one single person. You will be asked to check your entry; the kilometres can then be saved. This is the first step in a plausibility check.

If you attempt to enter more than 300 km per day for one single person, a message will appear asking you to contact your local coordinator. You can then check the kilometres together with them, after which they will add the kilometres by accessing the cyclist’s cycle log under the ‘Manage cyclists’ tab.

If you’re entering kilometres for groups of people, the kilometre limit will of course be higher and depend on the number of people that you’re entering kilometres for.

Kilometres tracked via the app are automatically added to your cycle log straight away. Should you choose to enter your kilometres manually via the website, its entirely up to you how often you wish to enter these (each individual trip, a daily total or – at the very least – a grand total at the end of each CITY CYCLING week).

 

Kilometres can be entered retroactively, as long as they were covered during the 21-day period. After the local campaign period ends, you have a seven-day grace period to finalise your cycle log. No new entries or changes are possible after this time!

Coordinators have a 14-day grace period to finalise kilometre entries – this also starts at the end of the campaign period.

 

In CITY CYCLING, not only the kilometres cycled count, but also the number of journeys you complete. We strive in this way to help municipalities place greater emphasis on the bicycle as an everyday mode of transport in their local awards.

The number of journeys is currently publicly visible on the municipal subpage. It will also be listed in your cycle log and in your team overview.

For coordinators, the journeys completed by cyclists are also listed in all of the Excel evaluation spreadsheets.

Each and every kilometre covered by bike for professional or private purposes during the 21-day campaign period can be counted; (cycling) competitions as well as indoor training on stationary bikes (e.g. spinning bikes) cannot be included here. The kilometres cycled can be measured/estimated using an odometer (tachometer or cycle computer), the CITY CYCLING app or a route planning tool such as Naviki, for example.

The kilometres cycled can be measured/estimated using an odometer (tachometer or cycle computer), the CITY CYCLING app or a route planning tool such as Naviki, for example.

A journey is a route that starts in one place and ends in another, regardless of the number of stops that are made along the way. During circular trips, the start and finish can also be the same.

Here are a few examples to explain:

Your cycle to work is one journey, even if you stop to drop your kid off at daycare or to get something from the bakery along the way or make any minor detours. Your cycle home at the end of the day is then another journey – also regardless of the number of stops you make.

Cycling to the shops is also just one journey, no matter how many shops you cycle to; cycling home again is another.

Circular journeys such as bike rides out into the countryside are considered one journey, even if the starting point and final destination are the same. For multi-day cycling trips, the routes covered each day count as one journey.

Do you use several modes of transport to get to work? So, do you first cycle to the local railway station, then take the train to the railway station near your place of work and cycle to the office from there? Then this is also just one journey, as your destination is the office and the railway stations are merely stops along the way. Only the kilometres covered by bike count, of course – and not the kilometres you travelled by train!

Yes, you’re able to record the kilometres cycled by multiple cyclists (e.g. entire families, school classes, etc.) in one single account. IMPORTANT: Be sure to set how many people you wish to enter the kilometres for under “Settings” > “Number of cyclists”!

There are a few things to bear in mind when using one single collective account to record the kilometres cycled by several people.

Firstly, you will need to make sure that the total number of cyclists is entered and saved under Number of people in the account settings.

Secondly, every kilometre cycled must be entered in the cycle log. So if four people cycle 20 km together, then enter 80 km (4 x 20 km) in the cycle log. The kilometres will not be multiplied by the number of people automatically, as it is not always the case that all of the people managed via the collective account cycle the same distance.

If the CITY CYCLING app is used to track a route, then the kilometres are only recorded for the person using the app – the kilometres will not automatically be multiplied by the total number of cyclists. Meaning that you will need to add the kilometres for all of the other cyclists to the cycle log manually.

Special categories (so-called “tags”) allow municipalities to conduct more detailed evaluations, for example to address specific target groups such as commuters or schoolchildren, and to acknowledge these cyclists’ achievements separately. The teams are also compared directly within each special category – this provides even greater motivation.
Incidentally, coordinators of rural districts are able to decide under “Manage municipality” whether special team categories created in the towns, cities and communities belonging to the rural district should also be displayed on the rural district’s page.

Coordinators decide which special categories should be available in their municipality when they register the municipality. The team captains can then assign their team to one or more of these special categories when they form their team. Coordinators are also able to assign teams to special categories (“tags”) under “Manage teams” > “Edit team”.

CITY CYCLING lives from the principle of fair play and relies on the honesty of cyclists. It is not possible to check the kilometres entered by the tens of thousands of cyclists participating in the campaign, nor do we wish to do so. This being said, we ask that the municipal coordinators look into any “unusual” activities and to review these as necessary. “Social checks” among and within teams also tend to work. This being said, the actual aim of the campaign is simply to get more people – and particularly local politicians as decision-makers for cycling promotion – on their bikes and to facilitate more effective public presentation and addressing of this issue by means of a competition. At the same times, cyclists demonstrate to those responsible with their participation how important climate protection and cycling promotion are to them and how many people are already using their bikes today.

Yes, of course! If you live and work or are active in an association in different municipalities, for example, then you can cycle for several municipalities during one CITY CYCLING season. You’ll need to create separate user accounts for each though. Here’s how:

  • Set up separate user accounts – you can use the same email address for these, but will need to provide different usernames
  • Log into your new user accounts – when you do so, remember to enter the right username if you used the same email address to register several user accounts
  • You’re now all set and can get cycling!

If the campaign periods for the municipalities you want to cycle in overlap, make sure that you only enter the kilometres you cycled in the account for one municipality – so not twice. If you use the CITY CYCLING app to track or enter your kilometres, be sure to use the correct username to log into your account for each municipality.

You cannot use one account to record the kilometres for two different municipalities!

It doesn’t matter where you cycled – after all, climate protection knows no town, city or state boundaries. So you can also log the kilometres you cycle elsewhere.

Every kilometre travelled by bike is almost inevitably a contribution to climate protection, too! Hence every kilometre cycled and every cyclist counts. CITY CYCLING is not intended as a competition among individuals but rather a communal undertaking in which as many people as can and wish are able to participate. Perhaps you cycle so little because you are unhappy with the conditions for cyclists: your participation will help make the call for more cycling promotion louder! What’s more, only only those who have signed up for CITY CYCLING are able to use the RADar! reporting platform to actively help improve cycle routes! Particularly short journeys covered by car harbour considerable savings potential. In the first few kilometres, a cold engine needs up to 30 litres per 100 kilometres and the wear on the engine is particularly high. By covering shorter distances by bike, you will not only increase the life of your car but also save money and help avoid even more climate-damaging CO2 being released into the atmosphere!

With your participation, you show those responsible for cycling in your municipality how important climate protection and cycling promotion are to you. The larger the number of cyclists who participate in CITY CYCLING, the clearer – and louder – this signal will be! The (political) decision-makers will be made (more) aware how many cyclists there are and how many journeys are already being completed by bike in the municipality so that these road users must also be afforded more space. What’s more, only those who have signed up for CITY CYCLING are able to use the RADar! reporting platform.

No, you cannot count the kilometres covered during cycling competitions or while training on a stationary bike (indoor bike, spinning bike, etc.) towards your total.

During events such as critical masses, the number of participants and kilometres cycled must be determined precisely.

Take advantage of the CITY CYCLING campaign to gain an insight into life as a cyclist for (at least) 21 days and experience the traffic situation for cyclists in your municipality first hand. The real experts on cycle policy are all those, who have considered the matter from both a theoretical and a practical perspective. Why not refine your senses and enhance your awareness to help improve the situation for cyclists. You also should not underestimate – and indeed should also use – your role model function as a member of the local parliament: with your participation, you show others how important climate protection and sustainable mobility are. What’s more, in the process, the kilometres you cycle help your municipality achieve a good ranking in the “Most active local parliament” prize category.

(For those wishing to register for the Most active municipal parliament prize category.)

 

When a cyclist signs up for the first time, they will be asked about their status as a parliamentarian or member of the local parliament and/or council. This information is decisive for the prize category of “Most active municipal parliament” in which Climate Alliance acknowledges municipalities’ achievements.

 

In principle, members of the local parliament are all persons belonging to the town/city/municipal/district council or committee. A right to vote is always decisive here. For towns/cities, there is also the option of adding members of district parliaments/local councillors, etc. and actively including them in the local CITY CYCLING campaign.

 

In case of doubt, please contact your local coordinator directly (details of the local contact(s) can be found on the subpages of the participating municipalities).

 

(Relevant for the prize category of Most active local parliaments.)

When you sign up for CITY CYCLING, you’ll be asked about your status as a parliamentarian or member of the local council. This information is decisive for the prize category of Most active local parliaments in which Climate Alliance acknowledges the achievements of municipal representatives.

In principle, members of the local parliament are all persons belonging to the town/city/municipal/district council or committee. A right to vote is always decisive here and the fact that the members are elected by the citizens, in accordance with the municipal bylaws. For towns/cities, there’s also the option of adding members of district parliaments/local committees, etc. and actively including them in the local CITY CYCLING campaign.

In case of doubt, please contact your local coordinator directly. You’ll find their details on the subpage for your municipality.

 

You’re able to join or form a team up until the very last day of the 21-day local campaign period.

Expanding your team and inviting other cyclists to join you is easy! Simply log into your account and go to ‘My team’. Select one of the options from the drop-down menu at the top: either copy the invitation link to distribute it as you wish or select the option ‘Recommend CITY CYCLING via email’ to send an email via the portal straight to all those you’d like to recruit for CITY CYCLING and your team. These options will only be available in the drop-down menu during the local campaign period.

The people you invite to join can then register very easily by clicking on the link in the email they receive – your municipality and team will be pre-selected.

To make the competition even more exciting, cyclists are now able to form subteams (e.g. for individual departments or classes) within their main team (company, school, public authority, club, etc.). The kilometres cycled count towards the subteam as well as the main team.

Team captains should be prepared to make statements (e.g. on why people should participate) and to upload a photo of themselves and/or of their team. Statements and photos can be uploaded to the team captain’s cycle log. These will then be published on the municipality’s subpage along with the team name.

The kilometres cycled count towards both the subteam and the main team. The results for the subteams within each main team are listed under “My team” after logging in. Only the results for the main teams are published on the municipality’s subpage though.

 

First, sign up for CITY CYCLING and join a main team. Under “Manage teams”, you’ll then have the option “Create new subteam”. You’ll automatically be designated the team captain for your subteam.

Captain of a main team are able to create subteams, too. In this case, they remain in the main team and aren’t automatically moved to the subteam, but are able to access the subteam members’ data.

 

Those wishing to participate in the special CYCLE STAR category should contact their local coordinator in the participating municipality, who will then register them as a CYCLE STAR. It is at the local coordinator’s discretion to decide who is permitted to represent the municipality in this special category (e.g. mayors, city councillors, etc.).

Climate Alliance accepts registrations throughout the ongoing CITY CYCLING season. Provided the campaign can run for the required 21 consecutive days, registrations are accepted until September.

For the online registration form for municipalities, information on the participation fees, etc., see the registration information.

The CITY CYCLING campaign takes place every year between 1 May and 30 September 2021. In the municipalities themselves, the campaign runs on 21 consecutive days to advocate climate protection and promote cycling. The participating municipalities are free to choose the exact campaign period.

Municipalities need to officially register with Climate Alliance online – see here for more information. As soon as a subpage has been set up under the “Participating municipalities” tab, teams can be formed via the cycle log and climate-friendly kilometres collected for the municipality during the local campaign period.

 

In principle, any municipality (town/city, community, rural district/region) worldwide is able to participate – so also municipalities that are not Climate Alliance members. While a local council resolution or suchlike is not necessary for participation/registration, approval must always be obtained from the municipality, e.g. the (lord) mayor, local authorities, etc.

The municipality – or respective municipal representative – is responsible for local organisation and implementation of the CITY CYCLING campaign and must name (at least) one contact person to act as a local contact for Climate Alliance, the cyclists and the local media.

Countless tools are available under the Resources tab, including the campaign concept and rules of participation for cyclists.

 

 

Any municipality, city or county/region worldwide.

Rural districts/regions are able to choose whether they wish to participate together or for the individual towns/communities to be listed separately (as indicated by the supplement “X in the rural district of YZ” next to the municipality’s name). The kilometres collected will then be credited to both the town/community and the rural district/region. The only condition: the CITY CYCLING campaign must take place in the rural district/region and associated city/community at the same time!

 

Yes! We are delighted to report that the CITY CYCLING campaign has become so well established that Climate Alliance will continue to run the campaign in

Participation in the CITY CYCLING campaign is voluntary and at participants’ own risk. There shall be no recourse to legal action. The participating municipalities assume responsibility for local organisation of the CITY CYCLING campaign as well as for all related measures and events.

For detailed information on data protection within the CITY CYCLING campaign, please see city-cycling.org/privacy-policy.

 

Coordinators occasionally contact us to let us know that they’re having difficulties accessing our website using Internet Explorer. Please be advised that the CITY CYCLING website has not been optimised for viewing using Internet Explorer.

This is because Microsoft ceased to develop Internet Explorer in 2015, which means that while security updates are still being released, the functionality is no longer being improved. Internet Explorer can therefore no longer reliably map many of the standards that are now commonplace (e.g. optimisation for viewing on a smartphone). Limitations to the usability exist as a consequence.

We therefore strongly recommend that you instead use another browser such as Firefox, Edge or Chrome.

 

Yes! We are delighted to report that the CITY CYCLING campaign has become so well established that Climate Alliance will continue to run the campaign indefinitely. As in every year, municipalities will be able to register from next spring, after which time it will also be possible for teams and individual cyclists to sign up.

For full details of the terms of participation, conditions for CYCLE STARS, etc. see the rules of participation.

We recommend the following procedure:

 

  • Click on “Manage cyclists” and sort the cyclists shown here by kilometres.
  • When cyclists have covered more than 1,000 km during the 21 days, check whether these kilometres have perhaps actually been cycled by more than one person. Cyclists often make this clear in their comments on the kilometre entry or in the name, but forget to indicating this in their settings (“Settings” > “Number of cyclists”).
  • When cyclists have covered more than 3,000 km, we recommend that you always check whether the totals entered are correct and, if so, how these kilometre totals were achieved. Totals of more than 3,000 km are, in principle, entirely feasible, so shouldn’t just be ruled out as a matter of course.

We recommend the following procedure:

  • Open the mailing list of parliamentarians (top right, second line with green buttons) under “Manage cyclists” in the login area.
  • Check which of the cyclists listed have wrongly clicked on this status by comparing a list with your parliamentarians.
  • To remove these participants’ parliamentarian status, search for the corresponding names under “Manage cyclists”, then click on change and untick the “Parliamentarian” box. Don’t forget to then click on “Update” to confirm the change!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pedelecs (250 W average engine power, support regulated at 25 km/h) are permitted in the CITY CYCLING campaign as they are considered bicycles within the scope of the German Highway Code (Straßenverkehrs-Ordnung, StVO). Studies moreover show that pedelecs are also climate-friendly vehicles in terms of the battery production: with less than 6 g of CO2 per kilometre, they emit around 20 times less CO2 than an economical car with a combustion engine. Pedelecs also deserve support, as they significantly increase a bike’s radius of use and can make cycling accessible to a great many new cyclists. A great deal of potential exists to reduce the number of journeys completed by car. And last but not least: due to their high average speed, pedelec cyclists are also – and perhaps even more – reliant on good cycling infrastructure, which is why they may and should also use the RADar! reporting platform!

No, the kilometres you cycle using an e-bike are not recorded or evaluated separately. Allow us to explain why:

Many cyclists use both an e-bike and a conventional bike, which means that they’d have to indicate which type of bike they used for each individual journey. This could lead to errors during the recording of kilometres if they forget to make this distinction.

Another consideration: Many pedelec users don’t use the electrical assistance all the time, but rather only switch it on when cycling up a hill or if there is a strong headwind, for instance. They use the rest of their journey to get some exercise. Keeping track of such usage in the cycle log would be quite difficult!

Another particularly important consideration is that many teams include people with and without e-bikes, who cycle together. While it would be possible to differentiate between the types of bicycle in the team rankings to some extent (except perhaps in the two cases mentioned above), this would not be realistic on the municipal level. Unless teams only comprise cyclists who only ride an e-bike (or a conventional bike) that is. This would make the campaign considerably more complicated though, which could in turn affect some people’s motivation to participate: cyclists want to be able to select their team according to who they want to cycle with and not according to the type of bike they use.

Speaking of types: If we were to distinguish between e-bikes and conventional bikes, it would only be logical to also distinguish between other types of bicycle, too. After all, it obviously makes a big difference whether a child’s bike, an old Dutch bike or a state-of-the-art carbon-framed racing bike is used to cycle 10 km!

This would also complicate the campaign further, however, increase the likelihood of errors occurring during the recording of data and make it far more difficult to compare the results in the competition. Especially since, in addition to the type of bike, the cyclists’ physical condition or fitness level also plays an important role, which we (for many good reasons) do not ask about either.

Ultimately, the aim of CITY CYCLING is simply to encourage as many people to cycle as possible, in the most uncomplicated way possible. For even though the campaign is essentially also a competition, it’s really all about promoting cycling and climate protection.

Hence we’ve come up with a different solution to the question of how to evaluate the kilometres covered by e-bike. In order to shift the focus from the number of kilometres cycled and the type of bicycle used towards seeing bicycles as a means of transport in everyday life, we’ve introduced a new evaluation category: journeys. A journey counts the same regardless of whether you travelled just 1 km to the bakery or used a pedelec to commute 35 km to work. For more information on this new category, type “Journeys” in the FAQ search field.

Beside promoting cycling and facilitating long-term improvements in the cycling infrastructure (e.g. through the RADar! reporting platform), the CITY CYCLING campaign aims to help protect the climate – this is also one of Climate Alliance’s overall aims. We strive to communicate and raise awareness using the simplest, most comprehensible messages possible: every journey covered by bike is essentially environmental and climate protection as a matter of course. And this is what’s so great about it!

We always consciously speak of “CO2 avoidance” rather than “savings” – after all, not every journey covered by bike actually saves or replaces a journey by car. Strictly speaking, people who do not own a car cannot save CO2 – the fact that their behaviour still has a positive impact on the environment is indisputable though. We also take this into account and acknowledge it.

The campaign does not make any scientific claim. By indicating the CO2 avoided (based on 154 g CO2 per kilometre cycled, according to the German Federal Environment Agency) we merely wish to illustrate the positive effects cycling can have on our mobility behaviour – and how much greater these effects can be if more people choose to regularly switch to using their bicycle, naturally also beyond the CITY CYCLING campaign period!

The free CITY CYCLING app offers two important advantages:

Firstly, thanks to GPS, you can easily track the journeys you complete by bike. The kilometres covered are then automatically added to the totals for your team and municipality.

Secondly, all of the routes tracked by the app are evaluated scientifically entirely anonymously as part of the RiDE project. RiDE stands for “Radverkehr in Deutschland”, which means as much as “bicycle traffic in Germany”. This evaluation allows us to provide your municipality with information that is extremely useful to it in its traffic planning: Where and how many cyclists are on the road when? Where does the traffic come to a standstill and where are the waiting times at traffic lights disproportionately long? Your municipality can then expand and optimise the local cycling infrastructure according to users’ needs.

For more information, see city-cycling.org/app and radverkehr-in-deutschland.de.

We attach great importance to data security during your use of the CITY CYCLING app.

The data collected and transmitted is used exclusively for municipal cycling planning and research projects. It is also anonymised so that no personal references can be made.

This purely factual data is then made available to the municipalities participating in CITY CYCLING for their cycling planning.

Please see here for detailed information on how your data is used and the measures we take to protect your data.

Android:

Android devices have an energy-saving function that is often activated by default. When it is activated, no location services (GPS) are used when the screen is switched off. This can cause issues when tracking routes.

You can deactivate the energy-saving function under “Settings > Battery” or “Settings > Device > Battery”. The path may vary depending on your device. You may need to add the CITY CYCLING app to the list of exceptions in the app permissions.

iOS:

For iOS devices, access to the location services (GPS) for the CITY CYCLING app must be set to “When using the app” so that the app continues to track your routes in the background. You can set this under “Settings > Privacy > Location Services > CITY CYCLING”.

All tracked routes must first be synchronised with the CITY CYCLING server before they can be added to your team total and cycle log. Depending on your internet connection, this can sometimes take a while (the clock symbol will appear next to the route in the meantime). As soon as your internet connection is sufficiently strong (e.g. a stable Wi-Fi network), your tracked routes will automatically be synchronised.

Routes tracked outside of your municipality’s local CITY CYCLING period are not synchronised with our servers and are only stored locally on your phone. This local data is deleted during reinstallation. We’re working to enable the synchronisation of routes outside of the CITY CYCLING period with our servers in the future.

Single tick: The route has been tracked outside of the CITY CYCLING period and will only be saved locally on your phone.

Double tick: The tracked route has been synchronised with our server and will be added to the totals for your team and municipality.

Clock: The tracked route has not yet been synchronised with our server and therefore does not appear in the “Results” yet.

Simply swipe left and a red “Delete” button will appear.

No, we deliberately do not offer such an interface.

In addition to using the CITY CYCLING app to conveniently track your journeys completed by bike via GPS, we also wish to evaluate the cycling data we gain in the process scientifically and to make it useful to municipalities so that they can tailor expansion of the local cycling infrastructure accordingly. We’re collaborating with the Technical University in Dresden on a research project lasting several years to develop methods to evaluate data more precisely. Hence the CITY CYCLING app also records other sensor data in addition to the GPS data. Unfortunately, the data other providers collect is not as comprehensive or of the same quality.

The CITY CYCLING app was last revised in 2018. Its compatibility has continuously been adapted to the latest standards

iOS: From iOS 11.2.

Android: From Android 6.0.

Numerous virtual acknowledgements await in the app for those of you who cycle a lot and use the app to track the kilometres you cycle. These acknowledgements will provide added motivation and make your cycling successes visible in your personal account. Your achievements in three categories are acknowledged: kilometres, journeys and series. Here’s a brief overview of the different achievements:

Kilometres
km25 = Cycling Talent
km50 = Cycling Pro
km100 = Cycling Champion
km250 = Cycling Star

Journeys
tracks5 = Climate Cyclist
tracks10 = Climate Protector
tracks25 = Climate Saviour
tracks50 = Climate Hero

Series
streak3 = Series Cyclist
streak5 = Series Enthusiast
streak7 = Series Expert
streak14 = Series Master
streak21 = Serien Royalty

Here, a “series” means consecutive days on which at least one journey is tracked.

You can view your achievements and progress in the app under “My profile”.

NB: All acknowledgements relate exclusively to routes tracked via the app. Kilometres added manually are not taken into account.

RADar! reporting platform is a tool by Climate Alliance for online citizen participation and planning. It offers municipalities and their inhabitants excellent opportunities to further promote cycling in their municipality together.

Cyclists draw their local authorities’ attention to problematic and/or dangerous places along cycle routes via the CITY CYCLING app or online. They can simply drop a pin on a map and add a reason for their report. The municipality is then informed and can take further action as appropriate.

Cyclists are actually able to submit reports for any municipality, as long as theRADar! reporting period is active. The municipalities you’re currently able to submit reports for are marked on the map in red. In municipalities with a grey background, the reporting period has already ended. The municipalities are still able to access the reports submitted and to manage these though.

 

Coordinators are able to log into radar-online.net under “My RADar!” at the top right using their CITY CYCLING access data.

In the login area, the reports submitted can be edited by clicking on the individual pins, then on the edit icon in the top right corner of the box. Click on “Export data” to obtain an Excel spreadsheet of the reports. The person to report the issue will then automatically be informed of the status update via email.

 

 

 

Yes, local coordinators are able to extend the period that RADar! has been booked for under “For municipalities” > “Extend reporting period” on the RADar! website.

Yes, RADar! can also be used without an app. Simply click on “My RADar!” in the login area on city-cycling.org. You’re able to submit reports for all municipalities where the reporting period is currently active.

RiDE stands for “Radverkehr in Deutschland”, which means as much as “bicycle traffic in Germany”. The cycling data collected via the CITY CYCLING app is presented on the RiDE portal in various use cases. Among others, the graphs show how often people cycle during the three-week local campaigns, which routes they cycle in which direction and how fast, and where there are long waiting times at junctions or traffic lights, for example. This data can help traffic planners to prepare needs assessments, make decisions and prioritise measures, and determine their impact in order to provide better cycling infrastructure in the medium and long term.

No, use of the RiDE portal is not normally included in the CITY CYCLING participation fees payable by the municipalities. Recording, storing, processing and providing the cycling data is costly, hence additional fees are payable for this.

Please note, however, that German municipalities are able to access the data FOR FREE for three years!
Thanks to a grant from the German Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport (BMDV), German municipalities participating in CITY CYCLING can access the RiDE portal and view the data for the calendar years 2022 to 2024 for free.

Municipalities must of course participate in CITY CYCLING! In order to make best use of the RiDE portal, municipalities must collect a certain amount of cycling data in the CITY CYCLING app. A minimum of around 200 cyclists need to use the app to track routes to obtain representative data. The more data you have, the more reliably you’ll be able to map cycling in your municipality. For municipalities, this means you’ll need to promote the CITY CYCLING app to your cyclists!

Data is collected and processed in compliance with the stringent European General Data Protection Regulation (EU GDPR). It is anonymised immediately after recording and used in the analyses and graphs exclusively as factual data. At least 100 metres plus a random section at the start and end of all routes are also always omitted in order to anonymise the recording start and end points prior to transmission of the route data.

The data will be finalised once the CITY CYCLING campaign season ends, so by around the end of October. You’ll then be able to view the data for your municipality in the RiDE portal. You’ll need to create an account for this first though – we’ll provide the link you need for this in good time.

Please contact us via the RiDE website should you be interested in obtaining the cycling data for 2021 or in using the RiDE portal outside of Germany.

For more information on the RiDE portal, see www.radverkehr-in-deutschland.de (currently only available in German).