"Cycle lanes are so important because with these connections we can complete the cycle path network in Bonn," said Christina Welt from the City Planning Office. The audience in the Beuel town hall took note of this sentence with different reactions. The camps of supporters and opponents of bicycle lanes were roughly equal on Monday evening. About 70 guests attended the central citizens' information on the topic of bicycle lanes in Bonn.

The federal city already offers about 50 bicycle lanes, 33 more have already been decided and another eleven are currently being discussed in the council committees. All in all, this makes almost one hundred bicycle lanes in Bonn, spread over four city districts.

The central citizens' information event in Beuel also dealt with fundamental issues on the subject of bicycle lanes. The administration informed about details and objectives of the mobility turnaround. But the majority of those present had comments on two streets in particular: the northern part of Rheinaustraße in Beuel and the street "Auf den Steinen" in Ückesdorf. In both streets, there are obviously a large number of residents who would like to do without the designation of their street as a bicycle lane.

In the case of Beuel, several residents showed up to give reasons why, in their view, a bicycle lane on Rheinaustraße in the section between Wolfsgasse and Combahnstraße would not make sense.

The residents Helmut Sementschuk and Günter Greitens formulated their position thus: In this northernmost section of Rheinaustraße, a cycle path runs parallel along the banks of the Rhine and via Professor-Neu-Allee directly to Kennedybrücke. Another bicycle lane makes no sense because Rheinaustraße ends as a dead end at the northern end and thus no through traffic hinders cyclists.

The administration staff member countered: "This bicycle lane is important for commuter routes." For cyclists who are unfamiliar with the area, a straight and continuous route must be offered. The residents replied: "This already exists if you go straight from the cycle path on the Rhine embankment past Wolfsgasse into Professor-Neu-Allee and then over the bridge to Bonn.

In the said section of Rheinaustraße, nine of the total 102 parking spaces will be taken away to offer this road space to pedestrians and cyclists. "On average, cars are parked in the same spot 23 out of 24 hours a day. These spaces need to be converted to improve mobility for the entire urban community," Welt explained. The goal, he said, is that by 2030 only 25 per cent of Bonn's traffic journeys will be made by car, with the remaining 75 per cent being made on foot, by bike or by local transport.

The city assured to provide as much parking space as possible. The fact that some parking spaces in the city area would have to be eliminated would be unavoidable because the lane width of a bicycle lane should be 4.50 metres if possible. In individual cases, four metres is also possible. As the footpaths are to be at least 1.50 metres wide according to the Bonn Cycling Decision passed by a majority of the city council, there would often be no space left for parked cars. In response to a question from a participant at the meeting about how many parking spaces would be lost in the entire city area because of the bicycle lanes, the administration replied: 700 of a total of 60,000 parking spaces would be lost as a result.

To Günter Greitens' question whether the citizens could still influence the planning and implementation, the administration answered with no. The selection of the streets and the subsequent marking work starting in autumn had already been decided by the politicians many years ago. And Helmut Sementschuk asked, "Why don't they show any plans?" To which Dirk Delpho, head of department at the city planning office, replied: "That would have gone beyond the scope of this event." However, Delpho offered any citizen that they could come to the town hall in person to have their individual questions answered. "Contact us and we will make an appointment," Delpho said.

Some participants criticised that the people of Bonn had not even been asked whether they wanted so many bicycle lanes in the city area. It was simply decided. This was not a democratic procedure. Welt said: "We only implement what has been decided. Those who do not like the contents can draw their own conclusions at the next local elections.

The city of Bonn offers further mobility talks. On two dates, the administration wants to talk to the citizens in Bad Godesberg and Hardtberg. For this purpose, the city will visit the weekly markets in the centres with information stands: Thursday, 7 September, weekly market on Moltkeplatz from 9 am to 12 noon, Friday, 8 September, weekly market on Schickshof in Duisdorf from 9 am to 12 noon.

(Original text: Holger Willcke; Translation: Mareike Graepel)