Strasbourg is a city in northeastern France situated on the river Rhine at the German border. The Council of Europe, the European Court of Human Rights, the European Parliament and Eurokorpus are located here. Over the centuries the city was taken over by the Germans and regained by the French many times to finally remain a French city in 1944. While in Strasbourg, seeing the architecture you can see that the history of this city was balanced between the two countries. Strasbourg is also considered the French capital of bicycles and in this article we will try to briefly describe why.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Strasbourg was struggling with a public transport problem. The government knew cars would never be the most important mode of transport. Strasbourg could not afford to build a metro and the investment in a tram would cause enormous traffic problems. Due to European crisis in 1974 the government started promoting cycling. The first plans to build a bicycle infrastructure were made in 1978. The idea was for cyclists to move along rivers, through forests and parks so that they would not come into contact with cars. Despite the financial problems related to the crisis and the cutting infrastructure budget the idea of building bicycle paths has survived. In 1983 the first two-way bicycle paths were created, which was taken from the Dutch, for whom this solution also worked. In the following years the city center was connected with the outskirts and access to all important public buildings was created.
Currently Strasbourg has about 275,000 inhabitants and 600 km of cycle paths. Over the past years we have seen many campaigns promoting cycling activity and encouraging people to give up driving cars. Almost 20% of workers use this mode of transport for commuting. In Strasbourg we will find a bicycle rental (about 6,500 units) available 24 hours a day, which tourists are very eager to use. More speed limits up to 30 km / h have been added in places where cars can meet cyclists and pedestrians. Changed 4-lane road to 2-lane to increase the area to bicycle paths. We have The Forts Trial here, 85 km long, which leads us through 19 forts. We can drive kilometers along the Rhine or the Bruche Canal. Choosing The Deux-Rives Route we will travel 25 km crossing the border to return to Strasbourg by the bridge in the city of Kehl. These are just a few of the many examples of a well-developed cycling infrastructure.
Strasbourg is famous for its beautiful architecture, numerous monuments and the wonderful landscape of Alsace. Every cyclist will be delighted with the number of attractions that are waiting for him and the fact that all of them can be easily reached by bike. There are historic tenement houses, palaces and many other historical places. Below are some of the most important to visit:
- The historic downtown of Strasbourg, which in 1988 was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List,
- Notre-Dame Cathedral
- Petite France historic district of France
- Church of St. Thomas from the 13th-15th centuries
In Strasbourg we have 600 km of bicycle paths, but if that is not enough, we can go outside the city. We will find there 2000 km of paths in the historical land of Alsace.
