What will traffic in Cambridge look like in 2030?

Cycle infrastructure study tour of Oldenburg and Bremen

Cambridge is growing and bicycles and public transport are crucial to allow for the many additional trips on a limited network of urban roads. When the housing developments currently planned have been completed, Cambridge will still be a flat city with just over 20,000 students and a footprint of roughly 100 km², but its population will have grown to 150,000 or 160,000 people. Join the cycling study tour of Oldenburg, a university city in northwest Germany with exactly these characteristics. In Oldenburg 42.7% of trips are done by bike, across the genders, all ages and socio-economic levels; rain or shine. Households (ø2.8 people) own on average 3.1 bicycles but only 1.2 cars.

Oldenburg is one of the German Ministry of Transport’s eleven cycle demonstration towns. Our official guided tour on Saturday 25 May 2013 will be held with Oldenburg’s Head of Transport Prof. Müller, Head of Traffic Planning Dr. Korallus and the Cycling and Walking Officer Frau Goroncy. We will also look at a 1950s style cycleway next to an electrified high-speed railway track, sharing a folding bridge.

The Oldenburg group of the national Cycling Campaign ADFC will show us the links to surrounding villages and some new developments on Sunday 26 May.

We will see how Oldenburg’s cyclists cope in the morning rush hour on Monday 27 May and we will spend some of the day in presentations. We will visit the Chamber of Trade and Industry for a presentation on the dual-education bicycle mechanics course; the research department of the EWE about electricity storage, intelligent networks and how their electric concept car e3 fits into this (tbc) and council officials will talk about Oldenburg’s plans and ambitions as a cycling town, cycling and tourism, Oldenburg’s second train station etc.

On Tuesday 28 May we will visit the larger city state of Bremen (670,000 inhabitants), where Dr. Beatrix Wupperman, producer of the award winning film and book ‘Beauty and the Bike’ will guide the tour. In Bremen we will try the “call-a-bike” base-stationless hire bikes, see trip-counters, cross Bremen routes and learn about Bremen’s efforts to develop a Smart Mobility Mix.

All participants can join the tour at any time and travel at their own risk. There is no charge for joining the tour.

For a detailed programme and travel information, please see here.