Bonn's Mayor Katja Dörner accepted the award from the hands of Federal Transport Minister Dr. Volker Wissing and ADFC Federal Chair Rebecca Peters at the award ceremony in Berlin on Monday, April 24, 2023. "Such a significant improvement and with it the first place is a wonderful recognition of our work over the past two years, even if we are only at the beginning of catching up," said Mayor Katja Dörner. "The award is an incentive to continue on the path we have chosen. Because we are aware that there is still a lot of work ahead of us to create a continuous and safe bike path network for all of Bonn."

"For the mobility turnaround, courageous decisions have been made in Bonn that give more space and safety to cycling. The feedback from our survey the shows us that the installation of the bike lanes or environmental lanes on Oxfordstraße, Belderberg or on the banks of the Rhine helps create a better climate for cycling in Bonn. In the end, this also helps to relieve the streets of car traffic, which benefits all road users," says City Planning Officer Helmut Wiesner, pointing out the positive effects of promoting cycling.

Bonn had achieved a school grade of 4.2 in the biennial bicycle climate test in 2020 and had landed in the midfield, i.e. in 14th place out of 26 large cities between 200,000 and 500,000 inhabitants. Now Bonn has achieved a score of 3.8, making it the number one catch-up city in the corresponding category and placing it in 6th place overall. In NRW, Bonn ranks second behind Münster, which achieved a score of 3.0.

In the catch-up category, the cities with the greatest improvements compared to the last ADFC Bicycle Climate Test are honored in the respective city size category. The catch-up municipalities particularly stood out with outstanding ratings for bicycle promotion in recent times, with good winter services and in advertising for cycling. The Cologne-Bonn metropolitan area is particularly prominent among the catch-up municipalities. In addition to Bonn, Cologne (more than 500,000 inhabitants) and Bad Honnef (20,000 to 50,000 inhabitants) also ranked first in their respective group of cities.

In order to expand and strengthen cycling, the City of Bonn has implemented a whole range of measures over the past two years. These include:

• Expansion of a significant part of the east-west axis, in the process converting motor vehicle lanes into environmental lanes, protected bike lanes and bike lanes
• Installation of 23 mobile stations in the city
• Public relations campaign on road traffic regulations
• Jobwärts program for corporate mobility management
• Review of all signalized intersections for green arrows for bicycle traffic.
• Car-free Rhine embankment with the marking of bicycle lanes and protected bike lanes over a total length of 1.6 km
• Environmental lanes on Hermann-Wandersleb-Ring (1.3 km in length)
• Provisional marking with new bicycle- and pedestrian-friendly lane division on Viktoriabrücke
• Widening of the cycle path through the Rheinaue on the right bank of the Rhine (approx. 1.3 km)
• Current project: widening of a section of the Bornheim-Alfter-Bonn commuter bike route (approx. 1.1 km)

In 2022, the ADFC Bicycle Climate Test took place for the tenth time. Nationwide, 245,000 cyclists in Germany took part, in Bonn, in the Rhein-Sieg-Kreis and in the Kreis Euskirchen there were more than 5,100 participants. 1,114 cities from six different size groups were included in the evaluation. In order to obtain well-founded results, there must be at least 50, 75 or 100 voting results, depending on the size of the town.

The ADFC Bicycle Climate Test is one of the largest surveys of cyclist satisfaction in the world. It is conducted every two years by the ADFC bicycle club with the support of the German Federal Ministry of Digital Affairs and Transport. As a nationwide barometer of sentiment, the ADFC Bicycle Climate Test measures the satisfaction of cyclists in German cities and municipalities.

The results of the test are highly informative due to the broad citizen participation and can help municipalities with concrete recommendations to specifically improve the offer for cyclists. 

Further information on the Bicycle Climate Test is available at:  www.adfc.de (opens in a new tab) 

Information on bicycle traffic in Bonn can be found at  www.bonn.de/mobilitaet (opens in a new tab)