[Ep. 992] A ride from the Leipzig Congress Center to the city center. 7.5km long. The international cycling conference Velo-City 2023 took place in Leipzig in May 2023. More information in the blog post: https://bicycledutch.wordpress.com/?p=24447
John Simmerman over at the Active Towns channel published the signed way *to* the conference from the city centre. See his video here: https://youtu.be/Ns6CbiXV4OY
33 Comments
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Go easy on us. 😇
So it's better than most of the world but still quite shitty.
Thanks for (first) look in Leipzig
3:19: was thinking something is strange here, much later realizing it was placement of traffic lights/buttons 😉
For a fair part looks a nice/separated route, some along walking paths (love the separating brickwork; semi blocking crossing it) and some pretty close to cars.
Feeling also reflected by the helmet usage of people on bikes: fair part of commuters wearing, others feeling save enough not to do so..
Nice to have you here. 🙂 I hope you enjoyed the city and the congress.
Leipzig keeps develoving and building more for the bicycle infrastructure which is very nice. Since 2019, when i started living in Leipzig, a lot of things happend. But anyway, cyclepaths are often on the road & too thin. Good thing, the city is aware of the interest in cycling for it‘s inhabitants and keeps closing road lanes, reorganising road structures and constructing cycle lanes or even cycle-roads.
There is even the plan to build huge cycle roads on old abandoned train tracks around the city.
🙂 thanks for the video
You’re going to make me cry…
Looks like a pleasant place to bike, especially those green wooded sections
Very noce tour, have a blessed week! 💚✨
💙💛🚴🏼♂️🚴🏼♂️🚴🏼♂️🚴🏼♂️💨💨👍👍
Dutch here! I like the videos showing other places then the Netherlands. Come visit Luxembourg city.
Strange to see, so close to cycle Walhalla Nederland, grown adults with helmets on flimsy bikes riding on too narrow lanes.
Some room for improvement but luckily most Germans are law abiding predictable citizens. I would ride there.
Lady first, of course… ))))) https://youtu.be/YCr7q7yB_WM?t=1473
Oh it is so cool to see you in my beloved Leipzig! We are one of the better places to ride with a bicycle, but no match to any random city in the Netherlands. I really wish they would be faster and bolder in the transformation of the city in to a more bicycle friendly one. And sometimes I think they authorities should just watch your videos to see how it should be done… 😊
So, 2 rules you need to know when riding in Germany:
– There has to be at least 1 meter distance in between the end of your handlebar and a parked car at all times, otherwise getting doored is legally your fault. This means many painted cycling lanes cannot be used by cyclists.
– Cars have to keep 1,5 meter distance minimum when passing you while you're on the road, even if you're on a painted cycling lane.
Moral of the story, just ride in the middle of the car lane in situations where parked cars are too close or too many people are passing. People will hate you, but at least you'll survive.
Id really like to visit Leipzig, but i find it quite annoying to actually get there. Train from Benelux taxes longer than it should with transfers, and flying somewhere so close seems absurd. And thats not to mention how expensive ICE tickets are…
9:43 that is a Death Lane. in such Lanes is the chance big that a incident happend.
22:36 Believe it or not – in Poland that truck would be parking on bike lane / sidewalk, at least with one wheel.
Lots to criticise, unfortunately. Lots of narrowness, illustrated by others overtaking with their bikes on the right, (when Mark tries to overtake 'correctly' at one point, it's clear it's not a social norm) and the general solution when it's even smaller, to have no separation between walking and cycling at all, creating conflict. And there are many sections with no physical protection from levels and speeds of motor traffic which would be unacceptable for many to cycle. It could also depend on the time of day, but I don't notice any small children cycling.
Crossing many junctions you have to travel over several kerbs and edge paving, it's like going over speed bumps in a car. At 14:27 cars are free to go while bikes stay, cars don't seem able to turn right so I have no idea why it's organised like that, instead of merging before the junction. Because there is no space for cyclists turning right to wait at the lights at the end, people have to walk in the cycle lane. And there are even a couple of quieter streets where it doesn't seem necessary to have relegated cycling to the pavement, but it has been.
Other things display an ingrained understanding of what cycling needs. The cycling/walking part doesn't unnecessarily dip to the car level on underpasses, demanding extra effort. You weren't asked to cross tram lines at really unsafe angles. There were side roads you crossed over with cobblestones where the cycling part had a smoother surface. None of this is a given and it's better than average for a german city, but a long way to go.
I’m impressed. Well done Leipzig. If they just got rid of most private cars, it would be pretty much perfect.
I have noticed that almost all (for us Dutch) foreigners cycle with the saddle way too low. That doesn't only reduce the speed with 16% but in the long run can destroy one's knees too.
I think there are many uncomfortable and dangerous situations with car and also with pedestrian traffic in this video. I would not like to ride my bike there. As I can remember there are a lot of white bikes (for killed cyclist) in Leipzig wich shows how dangerous it is to ride your bike there.
24:50 – Almost a crash with the car stopping just in time and the cyclist evading it
BicycleDutch, dank je wel! All your work is so good to watch/learn from. May I ask you about your camera setup? Out region (northern Kentucky/Cincinnati) is beginning of bicycle culture and needs more online documentation.
Make your city a bicycle city. Ask your local transportation planner and elected officials to support safe, protected bike lanes and trails in your community. If you don't ask and make them aware they will keep doing things the old way and prioritize cars.
Goed dicht erop zitten en knipperen. Doen die Duitsers bij ons ook.
Was it only me who felt ( I didn't time it ) that half the video was waiting at a traffic light 🚦⏳😀
The infrastructure is quite good compared to other parts of Germany but the combined cycling and footpath is asking for problems.
The traffic noise was so obnoxious compared to your Dutch videos. 🙁 Germany can do better.
Hi Mark, thanks for your videos. I love showing them to others as best practice examples for my studies. I just have one question: How are you recording them? Do you use a GoPro or something completely different?
I study spatial planning (Raumplanung) in Dortmund, Germany and I'm mostly interested in cycling as a sustainable form of transport for the future of our cities. Last year the city presented a plan for 10 "Velorouten", which are supposed to connect the downtown ring road with the suburbs/villages at the edge of the city. After seeing your videos on the cycle routes in ’s-Hertogenbosch, I thought that it might be interested to do the same for Dortmund. Especially since the city is seen as (one of) worst cities of its size (about 580K people) in Germany to ride a bicycle
BicycleDutch? More like BicycleDeutsch.
Wow wonderful video sir
18:49
The green arrow signboard indicates right on red is legal here though here, I assume it means straight through on red given that a right turn is not really an option here.
Could be much worse, but there are several crucial faults around intersection geometry and merging of motor and bicycle traffic in locations where that did not make sense, and there were a few too many traffic lights for my liking. Nevertheless, Leipzig does well on most counts.