Frequently asked questions

To complete as many journeys as possible by bike for both private and professional purposes in order to:

• promote cycling
• help protect the climate
• improve the quality of life in municipalities
• have fun while cycling

Learn more about what CITY CYCLING is all about.

Requirements:

• Your municipality must have registered for CITY CYCLING and the campaign mustn’t have ended in your municipality yet.
• You’re able to participate in CITY CYCLING in any municipality (e.g. a town, city, rural district) where you live, work, attend an educational establishment (school, college, university) or are a member of a local club or association. Check on city-cycling.org/municipalities whether your municipality has already registered.
• For people who work from home or in the field: You can only cycle for a municipality if your employer is based in a participating municipality and you’re regularly on the company site and therefore able to use the local cycling infrastructure. You cannot cycle for a municipality if you work entirely from your home in another municipality or in the field.

Sign up:

• Once your municipality has registered, you can sign up on city-cycling.org/sign-up, then either join an existing team or form a new one. If you decide to form a new team, you’ll automatically be designated the team captain.
• You must belong to a team to participate in CITY CYCLING – after all, climate protection and cycling promotion require teamwork! Teams of just two people are allowed though. You can form a team with your family, friends or colleagues, for example. If you can’t find a suitable team and don’t want to form your own, you’re alternatively able to join the “open team” that exists in every municipality.
• Once you’ve signed up, you can get cycling as soon as the local campaign period starts in your municipality. Complete as many journeys as you can by bike on the 21 campaign days (and beyond, of course!) and collect journeys and kilometres – either via the CITY CYCLING app, online or on paper.
• You’re able to use any vehicle classified as a bicycle in the German Road Traffic Licensing Regulations (StVZO).

Check the list of participating municipalities. If your municipality doesn’t appear in this list, then why not approach the local administration or city/town council and suggest that they do?

CITY CYCLING takes place every year on 21 consecutive days between 1 May and 30 September. Each municipality sets the dates for their local campaign individually within this campaign season.

To get involved in CITY CYCLING, your municipality must have registered to participate in the campaign. You can then sign up in a number of different ways and start recording your kilometres.

• CITY CYCLING app: This is the easiest way to record your kilometres. Simply download the CITY CYCLING app on your smartphone and track your routes directly via GPS. The kilometres you cycle will automatically be credited to your account. Our app offers further advantages. You can for example use it to support expansion of the local cycling infrastructure.  
• Online: Create an online account on city-cycling.org/register or reactivate your existing account if you already participated in CITY CYCLING in the past. You can then add your kilometres under “My cycle log”. It’s up to you how often you record your kilometres; we recommend at least once a week though.
• Offline: Many municipalities offer the option of taking part in CITY CYCLING entirely offline. Contact the local coordinator(s) for your municipality directly. They’ll provide you with a form for you to record your kilometres on. Simply complete and return the form to them in good time. You’ll find the contact details for your local coordinator(s) on the subpage for your municipality (city-cycling.org/municipalities).

You can use a kilometre counter, bike computer or cycle route planner to calculate the kilometres you cycled if you’re using the online or offline option.

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.

You can use any vehicle classified as a bicycle in the German Road Traffic Licensing Regulations (StVZO). You’re allowed to use an e-bike, though only a “pedelec” and children can use a balance bike.

“Speed pedelecs” are not allowed, as they’re classified as mopeds. Scooters, skateboards, unicycles and e-scooters are not allowed either.

The inclusion and participation of all people is very important to us. Hence kilometres covered by wheelchair, handbike, footbike, etc. can also be counted in CITY CYCLING.

We’re aware that it’s also possible to travel in a climate-friendly way using means of transport other than a bicycle. However, given that CITY CYCLING is a cycling campaign, we can only allow the means of transport mentioned.

As we wish to encourage independent and climate-conscious mobility behaviour among schoolchildren in particular, we would like to take this opportunity to draw attention to another Climate Alliance campaign: Zoom – Kids on the Move. This campaign considers a whole range of possible means of transport. See zoom-kidsforclimate.eu for more information.

With pedelecs, the electrical assistance only works when you pedal and cuts out at 25 km/h. They are considered bicycles within the sense of the German Road Traffic Licensing Regulations (StVZO), meaning that they must be cycled on routes designated cycle paths, and can therefore be used for CITY CYCLING.

Speed pedelecs require an insurance licence plate and users must have a driving licence and operating permit and wear a helmet. The electrical assistance cuts out at 45 km/h. Speed pedelecs are therefore classified as mopeds and cannot be used on cycle paths, hence they also cannot be used for CITY CYCLING.

The word “e-bike” is today often used as an umbrella term to refer to both pedelecs and speed pedelecs. To participate in the CITY CYCLING campaign, your e-bike must be a pedelec (not a speed pedelec!) as only then will your kilometres count!

No, the kilometres cycled using a pedelec (e-bike with assistance up to 25 km/h) are not recorded and evaluated separately. Allow us to explain why:

Many cyclists actually use both a pedelec and a bio bike, so they would have to make a note which bike they used for each individual journey. This would make recording the kilometres a time-consuming procedure that is more prone to errors.

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 this usage in the cycle log would be rather tricky!

Another particularly important consideration is that teams include many people, some of whom (but not necessarily all) use an e-bike. While we could potentially differentiate between the types of bicycle used within teams to a certain extent, this would barely be possible on the municipal level. Unless teams comprise cyclists who only use an e-bike (or a bio bike) that is. This would make the campaign considerably more complicated though – and this 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 bio 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, a sturdy old Dutch bike or a state-of-the-art carbon racing bike is used to cycle 10 kilometres! This would merely complicate the campaign even further, though, increase the likelihood of errors occurring during the recording of data and make it far more difficult to compare the results. 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 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, enter “Journeys” in the FAQ search field.

Each and every kilometre covered by bike for professional or private purposes during the 21-day campaign period counts. It doesn’t matter whether you cycled in the participating municipality itself or elsewhere.

Kilometres cycled during (cycling) competitions or indoor training sessions on a stationary bike (e.g. spinning bike) cannot be counted here. That is because the infrastructure usually available to cyclists whose improvement we are seeking to draw attention to is not used for these.

In CITY CYCLING, not only the kilometres you cycle count, but also the number of journeys you complete by bike. 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.

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 by way of explanation:

• 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!

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’ll be asked to check your entry;  the kilometres can then be saved. This is the first step in our 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 your 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.

Registered cyclists have seven days to add kilometres retroactively once the 21-day local campaign period ends. No new entries or changes are possible after this time!

Coordinators have 14 days to finalise kilometre entries – this grace period also starts when the local campaign ends.

Sometimes it makes sense for one person to enter the kilometres and journeys for several people– for an entire school class, family or people with no internet access, for example. There are two ways to do this: Either create an individual account for each person or set up a collective account.

Create multiple individual accounts:

1. Register each person individually – You can use the same email address, but will need to enter a different username for each cyclist.
2. Log into the new user account – Remember to use the right username if you used the same email address to register several cyclists.
3. Now you can begin adding kilometres and journeys. Always make sure that you’re logged in for the correct cyclist.

Advantages of this approach:

• You can see afterwards who cycled how many kilometres.
• The cyclists whose accounts you manage can also add kilometres and journeys themselves or use the CITY CYCLING app to track these.

Disadvantages of this approach:

• Managing multiple accounts can be confusing and time-consuming

Create a collective account:

If you want to enter kilometres and journeys for several people in one account, please note the following:

1. You’ll need to sign up as normal for CITY CYCLING.
2. Specify in the account settings how many people you want to enter kilometres and journeys for.
3. Enter the total kilometres and journeys 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 automatically be multiplied by the total number of cyclists, as people often travel different distances in everyday life. Meaning that you’ll need to indicate for each entry how many people the entry is for.
4. If you use the CITY CYCLING app to track a route, the kilometres are only ever recorded and automatically transferred to the cycle log for you. If you cycled with other people, who you enter the kilometres and journeys for in a collective account, then you’ll need to add these to the cycle log manually.

Advantages of this approach:

• You can easily enter kilometres and journeys for several people.

Disadvantages of this approach:

• It isn’t possible to determine afterwards who cycled how far or for whom the kilometres and journeys were even entered in the collective account, as it is all only under your name

Yes, they can – after all, the person could have been transported to their destination using another (less environmentally-friendly) mode of transport. We assume that further CO₂ emissions can be avoided in this way, hence we want to also take them into account in the results.

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.

CITY CYCLING essentially relies on the principle of fair play and on the honesty of the participating cyclists. That being said, we have still built in a number of features to ensure the plausibility of entries:

A check is conducted when cyclists enter kilometres. They must confirm their entries if the number of kilometres is high and request approval from their local coordinator when they want to add entries for more than 300 km.

The local coordinators are also responsible for checking unusually high kilometre entries and must contact cyclists as necessary to request clarification. They may block accounts with entries that are obviously incorrect should no clarification be provided. Cyclists who notice unusually high kilometre entries can also draw their coordinators’ attention to these.

At the same time, we would also like to emphasise that the main aim of the CITY CYCLING campaign is to encourage people to cycle, get cycling on the political agenda, support expansion of the local cycling infrastructure and ultimately help to protect the climate. Titles, trophies and winning only play a minor role. Hence we see no need for additional controls or technical barriers that only allow kilometres to be entered that have been tracked using the CITY CYCLING app or a bike computer, for example. Participation in CITY CYCLING should be open to everyone, whether they have smartphone and internet access or not.

No, it doesn’t matter where the kilometres were cycled – after all, climate protection knows no city or state boundaries. So you can also enter any kilometres you cycle in a neighbouring town or while somewhere else on holiday.

Yes, of course! If you live, work or are active in an association in another municipality, 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:

• Register again – You can use the same email address, but will need to enter a different username for each municipality.
• Log into the new user account – Remember to use the right username if you used the same email address to register several cyclists.
• 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 to the account for one municipality – so not twice. If you want to use the CITY CYCLING app to track or enter your kilometres and journey, make sure that you’re logged in with the correct account – so the account for the municipality you want them to be added for.

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

Yes, of course! If you live, work or are active in an association in another municipality, 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:

• Register again – You can use the same email address, but will need to enter a different username for each municipality.
• Log into the new user account – Remember to use the right username if you used the same email address to register several cyclists.
• 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 to the account for one municipality – so not twice. If you want to use the CITY CYCLING app to track or enter your kilometres and journey, make sure that you’re logged in with the correct account – so the account for the municipality you want them to be added for.

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

Teams can be formed and cyclists can join these teams up until the very last day of the three-week campaign in a municipality.

Dein Team zu vergrößern und Radler*innen dazu einzuladen, ist ganz einfach. Logge dich hierzu in deinen Account ein und gehe auf ‚Mein Team‘. Ganz oben auf der Seite findest du ein Dropdown-Menü. Hier kannst du wählen: Lasse dir einen Einladungslink generieren, den du beliebig weiterverbreiten kannst oder wähle die Option ‚STADTRADELN per E-Mail empfehlen‘ um über das Portal direkt eine Mail an alle Personen zu versenden, die du für das STADTRADELN und dein Team gewinnen möchtest.

Die Personen, die du gerne einladen möchtest, können sich dann ganz bequem über einen Klick auf den Link registrieren – deine Kommune und das Team sind dann bereits vorausgewählt.

Log into the CITY CYCLING website and go to “Settings”. Under “Team”, you can then select a team from the drop-down menu.

You’ll find this same drop-down menu under “Profile” > “My Profile” in the CITY CYCLING app.

NB: You cannot change teams if you’ve already tracked or entered kilometres.

To make the competition even more exciting, you can also form subteams within your team and compete against each other. A school team can set up a subteam for each class, for example, or a company team can set up subteams for each department. We then call a team with subteams the “main team”.

Here’s how the kilometres and journeys you enter are counted:
The kilometres and journeys you enter count for your subteam. You can compare the subteams’ results under “My team” after you’ve logged in. In the overall competition within your municipality, your main team will once again compete as one team and include the kilometres and journeys collected by both the subteams and all those who cycled directly for the main team. Hence only the results for the main teams are visible on the municipal subpage.

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

Alternatively, the captain of a main team is also able to create subteams. 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.

You automatically become team captain when you sign up for CITY CYCLING and form a new team.

You must then lead your team and motivate your fellow cyclists. You can post pictures in the team chat, for example, or add motivating words to your municipality’s subpage. You can also email the members of your team directly – as team captain, you have access to their email addresses. Please always treat this data confidentially!

If you decide to create a closed team, you must also confirm that each cyclist may join your team. You will receive requests to join your team via email.

As team captain, you can also set up subteams within your team yet still remain captain of the main team.

Municipalities can use special categories to “tag” teams in order to conduct more detailed evaluations. It’s possible to address specific target groups such as commuters or schoolchildren and to acknowledge the achievements of cyclists in these groups with special awards. The teams within each special category can also be compared – providing additional 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.

The special categories are:
public offices/administration, families, healthcare facilities, kindergartens/daycare centres, political parties, cycle sport groups, schools, universities/colleges, companies, clubs/associations and the Schulradeln campaign for schools

How can a team be added to a special category?
The local coordinators decide which special categories (“tags”) should be offered when they register their municipality for CITY CYCLING.
The team captains can then assign their team to one or more of these special categories when they form their team.
The local coordinators are also able to assign teams to special categories.

(Relevant for the Most active local parliament prize category)

All persons belonging to the town/city/municipal council or assembly or the district/regional assembly are considered members of the local parliament. 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. The total number of parliamentarians in a local parliament must then be increased accordingly.

For the kilometres cycled and journeys to be taken into account in the “Most active local parliament” prize category, a cyclist’s status must have been set to “Parliamentarian”. They must contact their local coordinator to request this. The local coordinators’ contact details can be found on the municipal subpage.

Do you want to participate in the special CYCLE STAR category? Then contact the local coordinator(s) for your municipality. They will register you as a CYCLE STAR.
It is up to the local coordinator(s) to decide which groups of people (e.g. mayors, city councillors, local celebrities, private individuals) are able to represent the municipality as a CYCLE STAR.

All municipalities, towns, cities and rural districts (equivalent to regions or associations of municipalities) worldwide are able to participate. The decisive factor is that there is an elected municipal parliament and that the municipality has the status of a “politically independent municipality”. It can then also be included in the special CITY CYCLING category of Most active local parliament (in case of doubt, an Excel list of the politically independent municipalities in Germany is available on destatis.de).

Rural districts (and equivalent associations of municipalities) are able to participate in CITY CYCLING alone or jointly with individual or all associated towns, cities and communities.

In case of joint participation, the name of the associated towns, cities and communities will be supplemented with “XY in the rural district of Z”. The kilometres collected will then be credited to both the town/city/community and the rural district. The campaign must run at the same time in the rural district and the associated town/city/municipality and the rural district must be registered accordingly by the coordinator for the rural district!

Municipalities must first register officially for CITY CYCLING (see the registration page for more information). The CITY CYCLING team will then activate the municipal subpage (the local coordinator(s) will automatically be informed of this via email and the municipality will then appear in the list of participating municipalities). Cyclists can then sign up, form or join a team and collect climate-friendly kilometres for their municipality during the local campaign period.

See city-cycling.org/register for the online registration form, along with more information on the participation requirements, fees and available subsidies.
Once a municipality has submitted their registration, this will be processed by the CITY CYCLING team. The municipality will automatically be informed via email once this has taken place and the municipality will also appear in the list of participating municipalities and be assigned its own subpage. Cyclists can now register, join and form teams, and collect climate-friendly kilometres for the municipality during the local campaign period.

Climate Alliance accepts registrations throughout the CITY CYCLING season, provided that the 21-day campaign period can still be completed by the end of September. The last possible registration date is therefore the last working day before 10 September – as the CITY CYCLING team still needs to be review and activate the municipality’s registration.

In principle, any municipality (town/city, community, rural district/region) worldwide is able to participate – so also municipalities that are not members of Climate Alliance. 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 person to act as the local contact for Climate Alliance, the cyclists and the local media.

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

We recommend that local coordinators do the following:

1. Log in, click on “Manage cyclists” and sort the list of cyclists by the kilometres.
2. If individual cyclists have entered more than 1,000 kilometres for the 21 days, check whether their entries are plausible. So if the kilometres were recorded using the CITY CYCLING app or added at regular intervals, for example. If entries seem implausible, contact the cyclist directly and check with them whether the entries are correct. They may have entered the kilometres for several people and forgotten to change the settings to reflect this or simply have made a typing error.
3. When a cyclist has entered more than 3,000 km, we recommend checking with the cyclist whether the totals they entered are correct and, if so, how they managed to cycle so much. It is in theory possible for cyclists to cover more than 3,000 kilometres during the three weeks though. So please don’t just disallow entries without checking first.
   Please note: Block accounts that aren’t plausible. Please don’t delete them, as the kilometres are then still retained. Blocked accounts can be unblocked again once the cyclist has clarified their kilometre total.
4. Issues can arise with collective accounts (i.e. when cyclists record the kilometres for several people) if the number of cyclists isn’t adjusted in the settings. However, cyclists often make it clear in their comments or team name that they’re recording the kilometres for several people. If the team name suggests a collective account, either ask the cyclist how many people they’re recording the kilometres for or, if it is already clear from the team name or comments, simply adjust the “Number of cyclists” in the account settings. Search by keyword using the table’s search function to find such collective accounts. Accounts with the following additions may well be collective accounts. In which case, be sure to check whether the number of cyclists has been adjusted:
   •    people
   •    club, association
   •    authority
   •    team
   •    class, school, kindergarten
   •    family

Be aware that the CITY CYCLING team will conduct random checks at the end of the campaign and correct results accordingly. If the local coordinators don’t vet the kilometre entries adequately, results that have already been communicated officially may have to be adjusted retroactively. Explaining these changes could create unwanted additional work for municipalities. With this in mind, we urge you to review the results in your municipality by the end of the grace period for coordinators as described above.

The precise number of participants and kilometres cycled must be determined during events such as critical masses.

(Relevant for the Most active local parliament category)

Municipalities must specify the exact number of members in the local parliament when they register for the campaign. This information is decisive for the prize category of “Most active local parliament” 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 this case, the total number of parliamentarians must be increased accordingly.

Yes, of course! We’re delighted to report that the CITY CYCLING campaign has become so well established that Climate Alliance is able to continue offering the project indefinitely. Municipalities can therefore definitely also plan CITY CYCLING into their calendar of events in the coming year. Until further notice, the campaign season will remain the same and run from 1 May to 30 September. As in every year, registrations will be accepted from the start of March.

Participation in the CITY CYCLING campaign is voluntary and at participants’ own risk. There is 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.

Please note that the CITY CYCLING website can no longer be accessed via Internet Explorer.

Microsoft discontinued support for Internet Explorer on 15 June 2022 and the browser has not been available since 14 February 2023. Users have been redirected to the successor product (Microsoft Edge) for some time now.

Alternative browsers include Mozilla Firefox, Safari and Google Chrome.

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.

Authentication is primarily intended for local coordinators. They must log in using two-factor authentication if they want to download data and results for their municipality as an Excel spreadsheet. The data cannot be downloaded otherwise.

Cyclists are also able to use two-factor authentication to secure their account.

It doesn’t matter whether you cycle a lot or barely at all. You and the local cycling infrastructure stand to benefit if you also take part. For a more detailed explanation, see here: What is CITY CYCLING?

Occasional cyclists, who take part in CITY CYCLING for 21 days, can experience how they could better integrate this sustainable and healthy form of mobility into their everyday lives.

The campaign has even more to offer, though, including benefits frequent cyclists: In addition to the fun of competing as a team, participants send a powerful message to politicians and local administration and show just how many people cycle every day and need better cycling infrastructure.

We’ve additionally developed the RADar! and RiDE tools to help municipalities expand their local cycling infrastructure.

• The RADar! reporting platform allows cyclists to inform their municipality directly of specific issues like potholes or shards of glass on cycle paths.
• All of the journeys recorded using the CITY CYCLING app are anonymised, analysed and presented in various formats in the RiDE portal. Municipalities can then use this helpful data to expand their cycling infrastructure according to local cyclists’ needs. Most of the data is available to municipalities in Germany for free up until 2024.

As local politicians are the decision-makers when it comes to cycling infrastructure, we also want to encourage them to take part in CITY CYCLING. During the three-week campaign, they can consciously assume a cyclist’s perspective, test the local cycling infrastructure and take the experiences gained into account in future political decisions.

As member of the local parliament, they also serve as role models: Their participation emphasises the importance of climate protection and sustainable mobility and also helps their municipality to achieve a good ranking in the special prize category of Most active local parliament.

We strive to use the simplest, most comprehensible messages possible to make people aware that cycling is essentially environmental and climate protection. Of course, not every journey completed by bike actually saves or replaces a car journey though. Strictly speaking, people who do not own a car cannot save CO₂. The fact that their behaviour still has a positive impact on climate protection is indisputable though. To take this into account, we always consciously speak of “CO₂ avoidance” rather than “savings”.

The campaign doesn’t make any scientific claims though. When we indicate the CO₂ avoided, we merely seek to illustrate the positive effects that cycling can have on our mobility behaviour. It is based on the data obtained from the German Federal Environment Agency of 166 g CO₂ per kilometre cycled (reference year: 2022).

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

The free CITY CYCLING app offers two important advantages:

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

Secondly, all of the journeys recorded are anonymised, evaluated scientifically and the data then made available to your municipality via the RiDE portal. The data collected provides answers to important transport planning questions such as: 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.

The security of your data that we collect via the CITY CYCLING app is very important to us.

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 planning their cycling infrastructure.
See city-cycling.org/privacy-policy 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 active by default. When it is active, 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 location of this function may vary depending on your device. You may need to add the CITY CYCLING app to the list of exceptions in the app permissions.

Particularly Huawei/Xiaomi devices are rigorous when it comes to running apps in the background. The following settings are required for such devices:

Xiaomi:

“Settings” > “Apps” > “Manage apps” > CITY CYCLING app: Background autostart: ON | Permissions: Allow location | Battery saver: No restrictions

Huawei:

“Apps” > “CITY CYCLING” > “App info” > “Details on power consumption” > “App start”: Manage manually Here, it is important that “Run in background” is activated.

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 good (e.g. a stable Wi-Fi network), your tracked routes will automatically be synchronised (the clock symbol will then be replaced with a double tick).

Journeys tracked outside of your municipality’s local campaign period are not synchronised with our servers and are only stored locally on your phone. This local data is deleted during reinstallation.

The symbols in the list of routes in the CITY CYCLING app indicate whether a route has already been added to the results and thus to your kilometre log:

Single tick: The route was tracked outside of the CITY CYCLING campaign 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 been synchronised with our server and therefore does not appear in the “Results” yet.

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 the insights gained available to municipalities via the RiDE portal.

Allowing them to tailor their 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.

It’s possible to export your tracked routes from the CITY CYCLING app as GPX files however and to then upload them to other apps such as Strava. Meaning that you don’t have to use two apps for tracking during CITY CYCLING if you also use Strava.

The CITY CYCLING app is continuously being improved, adapted to the latest standards and new features added.

iOS version required: iOS 15.5 or newer. [Download from the Apple App Store]
Android version required: Android 5.0 or higher. [Download from the Google Play Store]

Last updated: 30 July 2024

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 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 = Series 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. Entries 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 optimal opportunities to work together to promote cycling locally.
Cyclists can use the CITY CYCLING app and website to draw their municipality’s attention to problematic and/or dangerous places along cycle routes:

They can 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 able to submit reports for any municipality, as long as they offer RADar! Check which municipalities are offering RADar! on radar-online.net (“Participating municipalities”) or city-cycling.org/municipalities (tick in the final column). If the map is red for the selected municipality, you’re able to submit new reports. If the map is grey, the reporting period has already ended. You’re still able to comment on and confirm existing reports though.

Use RADar! via the CITY CYCLING app or online. There’s also a dedicated RADar! app and the website radar-online.net.

Local coordinators are able to use their login details for CITY CYCLING to also log into radar-online.net (under “My RADar!” at the top right). Reports can be edited by clicking on the respective pin on the map or collectively via the dashboard (edit icon). A data export function allows all reports to be exported to an Excel spreadsheet. The reporting person is informed of all changes to their report via automatic emails.

The local coordinators are responsible for processing the reports submitted by cyclists. Their contact details can be found on the municipal subpage.

Yes, local coordinators are able to delete reports. Municipalities will find this function under “Edit report”.
Please note: This function should be used extremely sparingly and only with good reason! Cycling infrastructure can only be improved if reports are processed individually and the wishes and concerns of cyclists are heard. It should moreover be noted that the reporting person is informed automatically of any changes. If there are infrastructure issues in a municipality that cannot currently be addressed, the reasons for reports (e.g. traffic routing or accessibility) can be adjusted in RADar!. Which processing statuses are publicly visible can be adjusted under “Configuration” > “Configure reports”.

Cyclists are able to delete reports under “My reports”.

There are two ways for rural districts and their associated municipalities to use RADar!

• Either the coordinator for the rural district books RADar! for the entire rural district. In this case, they also automatically become the coordinator for RADar!
• Or individual municipalities book RADar! when they register for CITY CYCLING. In this case, the reports go directly to the coordinator(s) in the respective municipalities.

Yes, existing bookings can be extended under “Your license” on the RADar! website. The reporting and processing periods in the municipality are also indicated here.

The free 21-day licence for RADar! can be booked under “Manage municipality” after logging in on city-cycling.org up until the start of the local campaign period. The box simply needs to be ticked and this change saved. The reporting period then ends automatically when the local CITY CYCLING campaign ends.

A one-year or three-year licence can be booked directly on radar-online.net.

Yes, as long as the participating municipality offers RADar! (visible by the tick in the final column of the list on city-cycling.org/municipalities, for example). If this is the case, cyclists can submit reports under “My RADar!” in the login area on city-cycling.org.

Alternatively, reports can be submitted via radar-online.net. An overview is also available here of which municipalities are using RADar!: radar-online.net (“Participating municipalities”)

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. Municipalities are able to see how much people cycled during the three-week local campaign, which routes they cycled in which direction and how fast, and where there were long waiting times at junctions or traffic lights, for example.

Traffic planners can then use this data 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 included in the CITY CYCLING participation fee payable by the municipalities. Recording, storing and processing the cycling data and making this available to municipalities is costly, hence additional fees are payable for this.

Please note, however, that
thanks to a grant from the German Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport (BMDV), German municipalities participating in CITY CYCLING can access (almost all) RiDE data for 2022 to 2024 for free 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 possible use of the RiDE portal, municipalities must collect a certain amount of cycling data using 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 is available, the more reliably it’ll be possible to map cycling in a 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.

Data processing for the 2023 CITY CYCLING campaign is now complete. The processed cycling data is available to towns, cities, municipalities and rural districts in the RiDE portal. You’ll need an account to access the data – you can do this when you register in the RiDE portal. We are expecting a large number of registrations, hence it may take some time to confirm your registration. We ask for your patience.

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 radverkehr-in-deutschland.de (currently only available in German).