LATEST
Bremenize was launched in 2016 to celebrate Bremen as a cycling city and to advocate for even better conditions for cyclists, pedestrians, and public transport. Since then, we have published over 100 articles and produced dozens of videos. Our website is available in both German and English and offers the world a glimpse into Bremen as a cycling city. We have also visited several cities in other countries and reported firsthand on their bike-friendliness.
Our articles are divided into four main categories and several subcategories. You can browse them below or use the search function to find a specific article.
Bremenize Blog
Fridays For Future
by Richard Grassick | Nov 29, 2019 | Climate, Urban Planning, Video
Thousands ready to take responsibility
by Richard Grassick | Nov 29, 2019 | News
... and again today - 29 Nov. 2019 - many thousands are on the street in Bremen with Fridays for Future. They vehemently demand that politics and society - EVERYONE of us - take responsibility for stopping the climate catastrophe and finally act decisively. ... some...
The Great Tram Stop Adventure
by Bernd Thomsen | Nov 18, 2019 | Ecomobility, Public Transport
An agitated lady stands at the Busestraße tram stop. "I have to take risks just to get to the bus stop”, she says. She pushes her rollator along the footpath and cycle path between the densely parked cars, lightly touches a vehicle door and daringly steps on to the...
ECOMOBILITY
Edinburgh – An Aspiring Cycle City
Edinburgh, capital of Scotland, has a population roughly similar to Bremen. Like Bremen, it has an old port area, now de-industrialised and slowly being transformed into a residential area. But other than also having a football team that plays in green and white, the...
Wallring: Thank you very much! More of it!
The "Wallring" is a ring-shaped premium cycling route around Bremen's city centre that is intended to connect the other planned premium routes.The happy occasion for today's report is that once again a few hundred metres of the Wallring have been designed and put into...
Cycling Women in the 19th Century in Bremen
or: How the Germans could become more beautiful and happier (Ricarda Huch) “I believe that if all Germans cycled, they would lose their dull sensuality and be happier and more agreeable.” (Ricarda Huch to Richard Huch 1896) The Free Hanseatic City of Bremen was a...
Sorting Bremen’s Cycling Advocacy Toolbox
Bremen has a long history of developing tools that have been proven to encourage and enable more people to cycle. The first German cycle path was built here in 1897, cycle streets were invented in Bremen in the 1970s, as was contra-flow cycling on one-way...
How to Transform A Busy Street
A transport transition needs to be attractive as well as contributing to safer cycling and walking . How could that work? A cycle street free of car traffic in the middle of the city, on a main road? Is that possible? Major tram hubs, lit and sheltered, right...
Einfach Einsteigen: A Public Transport Revolution?
The climate crisis and need for a transformation to a sustainable traffic and transport system demand feasible concepts. The initiative "Einfach Einsteigen" (not exactly translateable, but close to Simply Enter; Get on (board)/hop on) has developed a calculated...
Zebra Crossing – no chance in Bremen?
There are hardly any zebra crossings in Bremen. Why is that so? Don't they offer pedestrians safety? Do they disturb the car traffic? Are they too expensive to produce? Zebra crossings are - strictly speaking - a stopgap in places where car traffic dominates urban...
Bremen’s 1st “Premium Cycle Route” To Be Completed In 2022
At last the time has come. The start of formal public consultation for the "Wallring" premium cycle route was announced today by the Senator for Climate Protection, Environment, Mobility, Urban Development and Housing (short: SKUMS). The "Wallring" is part of the 43...
1970s Tools For 2030 Aims
Is your head stuck in the 1970s? Most of us like to think that we fit well with the modern world. We appreciate democracy. We support equal rights for all. We are tolerant and open to new ways. Yet when it comes to transport policy, many of us can’t get out of 1970s...
Walking Check in Bremen
At present, the share of foot traffic in Bremen is at its lowest level (21%), less is not possible. And this is because the conditions for foot traffic in Bremen are very poor. In order to draw attention to the numerous shortcomings to which everyone has become...
Cycling In Mixed Traffic? No!
I’m profoundly disturbed by the notion that, as an experienced cyclist, I “should” ride in mixed traffic alongside cars and trucks. Doing so makes cycling more stressful and dangerous. As a non-motorized “lightweight” I’ve “lost” this “game” before I even start. ...
The Great Tram Stop Adventure
An agitated lady stands at the Busestraße tram stop. "I have to take risks just to get to the bus stop”, she says. She pushes her rollator along the footpath and cycle path between the densely parked cars, lightly touches a vehicle door and daringly steps on to the...
Bremens first Protected Cycling Lane?
Bremen's Neustadt - located in the centre of Bremen, on the left bank of the Weser - is developing into one of Bremen's liveliest districts. However, the Friedrich-Ebert-Straße (see our post about Parking Day 2019 in Bremen) - a traffic axis designed at the height of...
One Hundred and Eighty Kilotons
What can cycling do to reduce CO2 emissions in Bremen? Here we calculate what has been done, what hasn’t, and what can be done in the coming decade. With Fridays for Future developing a regular presence on the streets of Bremen, a transport transition blog like...
A Pro-Walking Manifesto for Bremen
(The following is taken from the original text) Lots of dosh for car traffic - hardly anything for foot and bicycle According to a study by the University of Kassel, car traffic in Bremen receives a subsidy of 156 euros per inhabitant per year, public transport 115...
Cycling City, Car City Bremen
*A big thanks to the wonderful musician Fred Frith for permission to use Sparrow Song in this short film. Over the three years or so since we’ve been posting, a background debate has been continuously rearing its head. How, and why, did Bremen become a city with 25%...
Think Green? Vote Red?
Election day is approaching, we all have to decide how to vote. And it will be difficult, because coalition talks will follow. How do we achieve a coalition that promotes a sustainable, green transport policy and takes the climate crisis seriously? Earlier this month...
A Vote For Cycling?
After this week’s Buten un Binnen Wahl Lokal broadcast failed to address the self-proclaimed second most important issue in the forthcoming election (transport), we thought we would be helpful and provide a summary of the main parties’ positions. Seven parties...
Parkallee in Bremen: Missing the Target
Good Things Come To Those Who Wait? Parkallee in Bremen is part of a planned Premium Route for cycling that runs from the university in the north to the city centre. For too long, this 500 metre section between Am Stern and the city’s main railway lines has...
Seeing Red
Bremen’s tortuous route to something resembling a Cycling City took another step forward this month with the re-surfacing of the oft-plagued cycle street Parkallee. Regular readers of our blog will know that this semi-main artery for through traffic - it is one of...
Camp 2021 – German City Campaigns Get Networked
Following the success of Volksentscheid Fahrrad in Berlin, which now commits Germany’s capital city to a 600 million euro programme of transformation of its cycling infrastructure, a number of its key activists have helped establish Changing Cities. This new...
Protected Bike Lanes: Solving the safety conflict?
People who are involved with transport politics are continuously confronted with the issue of safety. Bike lanes are rejected, supposedly because of safety, while others demand them for exactly the same reasons. Cycling on the road is recommended by some as being...
Berlin : From Grassroots Movement to Mobility Act
On June 28th 2018 Berlin’s Parliament signed a new Mobility Act into effect. This was the final point of a more than two and a half-year long campaign by the Initiative Citizens Referendum for Cycling in Berlin and their umbrella organization Changing Cities....
Portland – Myth and Reality
Following a television documentary about the “do it yourself” and bicycle culture in Portland, Oregon, last year, many Bremers, and especially cyclists, asked me if Portland is really as cool as all the hype. Well-signed bike route through residential streets in the...
Women on bikes – There is a difference
„The bicycle has done more for the emancipation of middle and upper class women then all the struggles of the womens’ movement“. So wrote the Austrian authoress and feminist Rosa Mayreder (1858-1938). The first female cyclists came from wealthy families, taking the...
Parking Space to Cycle Space? Not In Bremen
With the recent publication of proposals for comprehensive parking management by Bremen's Transport Transition coalition, there’s been considerable discussion in the city’s media about the problem of illegal parking. Little has been said about its direct impact...
Keep the Pavements Clear!
Members of the Bremen Transport Transition Forum were in action today, as part of the National Illegal Parking Week. The aim of the action was to draw attention to the improper, dangerous and unlawful use of public space for parking.
European Push and Pull
The Amsterdam approach to car parking which we previously outlined is also regarded as a model for the European Push & Pull project. Push-Pull is essentially a package of carrot and stick policies: I'll take something away from you, e.g. Free parking, and give you...
The Bargain Hunters
Regular readers will know that, until now, we have never had to offer an explanation of a post over on the German language side of our blog. But the background to today’s commentary probably requires explanation for pretty well anyone outside Bremen. Back in...
Carrot and Stick in Amsterdam
One of the best examples of consistent parking management is the city of Amsterdam. The principle is simple. The closer you park to the centre the more you pay. Amsterdam’s parking regime covers an area that, as far as population is concerned, is nearly as big as...
Wazzup On Parkallee?
For some time now - from near and afar - I've been rubbernecking the ongoing saga of Parkallee - and the council's to-ing and fro-ing, politicians and officers alike. What to do? What's going on? At one point there is a cycleway, then there isn't, now you see it, now...
Oslo: When Car Parking Is Actually Tackled
Norway’s capital Oslo has for many years proclaimed its desire to tackle climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Left and right administrations alike have trumpeted their green credentials, regularly competing for the European Green Capital Award - and...
A Visit to Amsterdam
The first thing you notice in Amsterdam's inner city is that there are significantly fewer cars there than in Bremen - fewer cars on the roads and fewer parked cars. The latter appears to be the main reason for the lower number of cars in the city generally. Available...
Bremen’s First Premium Route
When a cycling city like Bremen, with a cycling modal share of 25%, announces its flagship cycling infrastructure initiative of this parliament, you would expect at least some bold and innovative measures. The name of the flagship policy - Premium Routes - certainly...
Bremen’s Parking Policy Battleground
Some cycling activists may be wondering why we’ve spent the last couple of months discussing the apparently boring subject of car parking. True enough, there are certainly sexier cycling themes to pursue in Bremen at the moment - the planned Cycling Quarter in...
Green Light for Cycle Neighbourhood
Further to our post in December, it has been announced this week that Bremen has been successful in its bid for federal funding towards a budget of €2.4m (2.396.650m €) for the proposed Bicycle Neighbourhood in the Neustadt district of the city. By mid-2019 the...
Cycle Streets That Inspire?
Albrechtstraße: An old and comfy cycle street in Bremen Bremen released a comprehensive transport plan in 2014: Verkehrsentwicklungsplan 2025. One of many aims is to improve cycling and cycling infrastructure. In Germany “Verkehrswende”, i.e. a fundamental change of...
Humboldtstraße – A Role Model?
Bremen’s politicians are extremely proud of the new design of Humboldtstraße as a Cycle Street. It is hailed by our representatives and their cycling advisers as a great solution for a range of problems. However, the new design didn’t arise because all the experts...
Cycle Streets: Do content and label match?
Cycle Streets in Bremen: Purpose and Reality Fahrradstraßen - Cycle Streets - are seen, alongside cycle lanes, cycle tracks, protective strips and more, as a tool to promote cycling. The basic concept - according to Germany’s road traffic regulations - is a road...
Scharnhorststraße Plans – Who Benefits?
Last month, on 24th November, the Office for Road Traffic (ASV) made public its plans for the conversion of Scharnhorststraße to a Cycle Street. The project, part of the city’s Traffic Development Plan (VEP) 2025, was presented to the meeting of the Advisory Council...
Model Bike Neighbourhood in Neustadt?
The term “Model Bike Neighbourhood” (Fahrradmodellquartier) awakens fantasies and desires in me. It sounds like “city of the future” and rather cool. It sounds like a neighbourhood, in which everyone can move in the public space with the same right and without fear....
The Good, The Bad, The Trees
The second post in our series about Cycle Streets follows a team as they look more closely at some of Bremen’s former, current and future Cycle Streets. They found that, not only is car parking a dominant factor in driving their development, but there is also a...
Bremen Cycle Streets: Too Compromised?
Cycle Streets are an important issue in Bremen. Over the coming weeks we'll be publishing a short series of posts on the theme. The first comes from Gudrun Eickelberg, a Green politician and artist. In recent years, Bremen’s status as a Cycling City has been...
Cycling Referendum in Berlin: When Politicians Are Compelled to Act
Berlin’s Volksentscheid Fahrrad initiative (VEF), launched in November 2015, has within a very short time kindled an unprecedented public debate about cycling. The "Radentscheid" has become a perennial favourite of the Berlin media (see Media Coverage) and is now...
A View from Newcastle
Let me introduce myself. I grew up in Germany but exchanged Braunschweig, my place of birth and study, for Newcastle in North England, when I was 23 years old. I am now 43, a Chartered Engineer (Dipl.-Ing) in Civil and Environmental Engineering. Last year, I...
Jan Gehl – Cities for People
Jan Gehl – Architect, Urban Planner, Visionary and Humanist Jan Gehl is an experienced architect and urban planner from Copenhagen with a very special view on his environment. Today he has become something of a patron for pedestrians and cyclists. He gained fame with...
A Brief History of the -Ize’s
It's taken a while - over three years in fact - but finally a Bremenize blog has gone live. The idea was hatched in early 2013, as we discussed how we should follow our work on Beauty and the Bike. In late 2009, that project introduced Bremen as a cycling city to a...
Parkallee – No Stars For The Cunning Plan
Anyone who has been on a cycle tour of Bremen will know the city’s top attraction Der Stern (The Star). The Stern roundabout sits in the Schwachhausen district, Northeast of the city centre and has seen changes to its layout over the years. Now new plans are afoot....
Frightening the Horses
In 2014, as we began our research into Bremen's cycling history, we spent many hours in the Bremen State Archive. It was there that we met Florian Reiß, a historian who was working on a major exhibition about cycling for the Cloppenburg Open Air Museum. We quickly...
Cycling in Bremen – The Early Years
“I believe that if all Germans cycled, they would lose their dull sensuality and be happier and more agreeable.” (Ricarda Huch to Richard Huch 1896)1 “In no other city in Germany, are cyclists treated as humanely as here in Bremen” (German Bicycle Association meeting...
INFRASTRUCTURE
Transport Accessibility – 3. Special Infrastructure
The city of Bremen is facing a major challenge. It is obliged to design traffic space in an inclusive way, enabling equal participation of all road users and modes of transport. This follows from the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD),...
Transport Accessibility 2. Pavement parking
There is hardly an issue in Bremen that is as heated as the parking of cars in residential areas. Questions like these arise: Who does resident parking help? Is parking on pavements permissible? And if so, under what conditions? What rights do pedestrians have? The...
Transport Accessibility – 1. Road Law
Part 1 : The legal Situation on Bremen's Streets Public space is always a scarce commodity in cities that have grown over time without central planning. Ever more, and ever bigger, vehicles are competing for the same amount of space. At the same time, ...
Protected Bike Lanes in Corona Times: Do it Bremen!
After Corona (2): When will Bremen get Protected Bike Lanes? Shortly before the outbreak of the pandemic, several protected bike lanes were announced in Bremen. In the meantime, we in Germany are in the middle of the second wave of infection - with a kind of...
Platz Da! Parliament Agrees Compromise
Platz Da! (There's Space!) Bremen has collected 6,000 signatures in the Hanseatic city and held endless debates with politicians to make more space in Bremen for all people. Platz da! has fought for state-wide parking management, for the abolition of parking on...
Sielwall in Bremen: The Law is a Joke??
On Friday 19th June 2020 a new phenomenon hit the streets of Bremen, or rather the street of Sielwall. That evening, the entrance to Sielwall coming from the Osterdeich was augmented with no-entry street signs, with a time limit of "Fri - Sun 20h to 6h". In other...
Bremen’s 1st “Premium Cycle Route” To Be Completed In 2022
At last the time has come. The start of formal public consultation for the "Wallring" premium cycle route was announced today by the Senator for Climate Protection, Environment, Mobility, Urban Development and Housing (short: SKUMS). The "Wallring" is part of the 43...
Safe mobility for all – an open letter
Changing Cities, Berlin, on April 14th published an open letter to Minister of Transport A. Scheuer, which called for the establishment of corona-safe pedestrian and cycle paths. Bremen initiatives have now sent an open letter with the same aim to the Bremen Senate...
Cycling In Mixed Traffic? No!
I’m profoundly disturbed by the notion that, as an experienced cyclist, I “should” ride in mixed traffic alongside cars and trucks. Doing so makes cycling more stressful and dangerous. As a non-motorized “lightweight” I’ve “lost” this “game” before I even start. ...
Fee-Based Parking – A Definition of Terms
In the objectives of the recently elected Bremen state government, regulation and limitation of parking are at the forefront. Strategic measures from the Bremen Transport Development Plan 2025 have now finally been included in the operative catalogue of objectives of...
Bremens first Protected Cycling Lane?
Bremen's Neustadt - located in the centre of Bremen, on the left bank of the Weser - is developing into one of Bremen's liveliest districts. However, the Friedrich-Ebert-Straße (see our post about Parking Day 2019 in Bremen) - a traffic axis designed at the height of...
Parking Day: Or how to civilise a traffic hell
The Friedrich-Ebert-Strasse in the Neustadt district of Bremen is heavily congested, or better said: a four-lane traffic hell. People who live on this road are exposed to unbearable levels of noise and air pollution every day. Because this road - 30 m wide, then 60 m...
Guerilla action or a “city for people”?
Europe-wide Parking Day in Bremen, Germany "A city for people" - for three hours reality in Bremen's Neustadt. This happened on the 15th Parking Day as part of the European Mobility Week in Friedrich-Ebert-Straße in Bremen after the super demo against climate change...
Resident Parking – Transport Transition or Motorist Appeasement?
The new Draft Agreement on Cooperation in a Government Coalition for Bremen, 2019-2023 (from now on here called Koa Treaty) promises to install resident parking, to ban illegal parking and to push back the illegal practice of parking on pavements with two wheels....
The Time Is Ripe – Parking Must Cost
The New Bremen Politics of Parking The newly-elected Bremen coalition government has agreed ambitious changes to transport policy, and placed them at the forefront of the coalition agreement (Draft Agreement on Cooperation in a Government Coalition for Bremen,...
Cycling City, Car City Bremen
*A big thanks to the wonderful musician Fred Frith for permission to use Sparrow Song in this short film. Over the three years or so since we’ve been posting, a background debate has been continuously rearing its head. How, and why, did Bremen become a city with 25%...
Protected Bike Lanes: Solving the safety conflict?
People who are involved with transport politics are continuously confronted with the issue of safety. Bike lanes are rejected, supposedly because of safety, while others demand them for exactly the same reasons. Cycling on the road is recommended by some as being...
“Platz Da!” Moves Up A Gear
The "Platz Da!" initiative has officially launched, as reported in the Weserkurier and on the telly. “Platz Da! Bremen "is involving a growing number of Bremen citizens who are working together for a better cycling and walking infrastructure, and a...
Breaking News: We are allowed to park legally in Bremen!
Who would have believed that? Wasn’t the rule of law abolished in Bremen? Didn’t they allow everyone to park illegally, on pavements, on cycle paths, on junctions, in the park, you name it? No, a judge bravely decided: legally parked cars cannot be towed away...
Legal Parking Fine Goes To Court
Regular readers may recall that on April 26, 2017, I had a car parked legally on the right side of the road in the Biebricher Straße in the Neustadt (a one-way street). My legally compliant behaviour now has a judicial sequel. My car is the blue one in the...
Keep the Pavements Clear!
Members of the Bremen Transport Transition Forum were in action today, as part of the National Illegal Parking Week. The aim of the action was to draw attention to the improper, dangerous and unlawful use of public space for parking.
Open Letter to the Bremen Government
It's National Illegal Parking Week in Germany. As part of a series of actions in Bremen, the Bremen Alliance for A Transport Transition sent the following letter to members of the state government of the State of Bremen: Dear Mayor of Bremen, and dear Bremen Senators,...
The Bargain Hunters
Regular readers will know that, until now, we have never had to offer an explanation of a post over on the German language side of our blog. But the background to today’s commentary probably requires explanation for pretty well anyone outside Bremen. Back in...
A Never-Ending Story
The never-ending story about the illegally parked car of the key cutting company in Bremen’s Wachmannstraße rumbles on. Little has changed since our last post in summer 2017. The yellow car still sits day and night on the pavement directly on top of the guidance...
Four Bremen NGOs Forge New Transport Transition Initiative
A major step forward for a Transport Transition has been taken in Bremen, with the release of a first joint policy document by city’s the 4 major pro-transition NGOs. BUND (Friends of the Earth), VCD (German Transport Club), ADFC (German Cycling Campaign) and FussEV...
Illegal Parking in Bremen: Not a Victimless Crime
We like Bremen and chose to make it our home Like many families, my partner and I chose to raise our children in Bremen because we enjoy the quality of life here. Like the San Francisco Bay Area where I grew up, Bremen is multicultural, progressive, and openminded. ...
Parking: Expensive for everyone except drivers
Is Parking a Basic Right? What does our community do when it offers free parking for almost everyone? Do free parking spaces constitute a needed public service such as education or health? Why am I allowed to buy a car without having to think about where I can park...
Dangerous drivers from a parent’s perspective
Sunday night on the way home from the swimming pool my 8 year old daughter and I were almost run over by a car turning left into the crosswalk where we were (legally!) crossing the street. Unfortunately we experience similar situations several times a week, since...
Park(ing) Day in Neustadt
Invitation: Park(ing) Day in Bremer Neustadt, Buntentorsteinweg on 15 September 2017 from 14:00 - 17:00 hrs. Help us convert a few on-street parking spaces to a green oasis or a living room. Come along for a snack of coffee and cake, for a game of chess, for...
Creeping Parking Disease
We’ve got a short update on our story of the keycutter from Schwachhausen. As readers may recall, a key-cutting service on Wachmannstrasse was repeatedly parking its service vehicles right outside the shop, blocking the guiding system for visually-impaired tram users...
Biebricher Straße – 30 Parking Spaces
The following video was shot in the summer of 2015 and the street scenes were filmed at an information afternoon organized by the “Citizen’s inititiative of Biebricher Strasse” campaigning for the space in their street being available for all citizens, not just...
The Key Stone Cop Out
In Bremen-Schwachhausen, or to be precise, Wachmannstrasse, there is a key cutting shop. On most working days, you’ll see its yellow or white company car parked outside. Very normal, right? Well no. The car is actually parked at a tram stop, right on top of a guiding...
“The Law Is An Ass”, Said Alice
The on-going local spat between citizen activists and the Bremen authorities in Neustadt took another twist last week, as the former tried their hand at legal parking, and the latter responded with the, umm, full weight of the law. The Alice in Wonderland, parallel...
Illegal parking – Unavoidable Evil or Misplaced Tolerance?
The explosion in private transport is a major problem for our cities. A growing number of cars are increasingly dominating our public space, pushing cyclists and pedestrians to the edge. Bremen is no different. However, unlike a number of other European cities, here...
The Parking Problem – New Series
Following on from our in-depth Cycle Streets posts, today we launch a new series focussing on that apparently boring, yet in practice extremely controversial theme, car parking. To start the series, we’ve dug out these short films from 1993 made by performance artist...
Out of the Blue and Into the Black
Right, here’s a post for people who like their rock ’n’ roll loud. Regular readers of our blog may remember our post back in September about a citizens’ initiative in Bremen’s Neustadt. In an attempt to calm traffic in their streets, and after years of official...
A Brief History of the -Ize’s
It's taken a while - over three years in fact - but finally a Bremenize blog has gone live. The idea was hatched in early 2013, as we discussed how we should follow our work on Beauty and the Bike. In late 2009, that project introduced Bremen as a cycling city to a...
Parking Day in Bremen Neustadt
What a nice and friendly way to get into contact with people! A great opportunity to exchange ideas about living in the city, about transport policy priorities for pedestrians, bicycles and public transport, on community life, on CO2 and climate issues and whatever is...
Do you know Bremen?
The Free Hanseatic city in the Northwest of Germany? The uncrowned Queen of German Cycling Cities? Maybe you remember Bremen from our film “Beauty and the Bike”? Ever heard about Bremen as the secret Cycling Capital of Germany, even one of the best in Europe? Of all...
URBAN PLANNING
The Struggle for the Right to Mobility
Graphic : Ellin Grassick Local self-government, Vision Zero and accessibility What happens when the Highway Code clashes with fundamental individual rights as formulated by the UN or national constitutions? In Germany, federal legislators’ proposals to resolve the...
..but I NEED my car….
Dependent on the car: who is it and what are their rights? The parking situation in Bremen is a horror in many places: many drivers park their vehicles in the most impossible places - regardless of whether this endangers other road users or impairs the flow of...
Senators drag feet over illegal parking
In our article on pavement parking from January 2021, we drew attention to a lawsuit pending at the Bremen Administrative Court against illegal pavement parking. Now there is a judgement: it was published on 22.2.22 and, among other things, upholds the plaintiffs'...
Transport Accessibility 2. Pavement parking
There is hardly an issue in Bremen that is as heated as the parking of cars in residential areas. Questions like these arise: Who does resident parking help? Is parking on pavements permissible? And if so, under what conditions? What rights do pedestrians have? The...
Transport Accessibility – 1. Road Law
Part 1 : The legal Situation on Bremen's Streets Public space is always a scarce commodity in cities that have grown over time without central planning. Ever more, and ever bigger, vehicles are competing for the same amount of space. At the same time, ...
Protected Bike Lanes in Corona Times: Do it Bremen!
After Corona (2): When will Bremen get Protected Bike Lanes? Shortly before the outbreak of the pandemic, several protected bike lanes were announced in Bremen. In the meantime, we in Germany are in the middle of the second wave of infection - with a kind of...
Politicians Moved to Address Sielwall
Sielwall - young men with overly-souped up cars race through it, and local politicians are finally seeing this as the danger that it is. Now the Sielwall and all four roads which lead to the so-called Sielwalleck are to be closed to car traffic up to 80 metres in each...
Dear Bremen, give us space to keep our distance. Love, your inhabitants
Good morning Bremen! Covid-19 has been dominating our lives for a few months now, and since 22nd March 2020 you told us to go into lock-down This is what you want us to do , you just extended it to 3rd May and you are also threatening us with harsh fines, if we don't...
After Corona – The future of public space
The shock of Corona in recent history is only comparable to the attacks of September 11, 2001. In both cases new rules and state powers were established almost overnight. This time it is not a question of fighting terrorism, but of preventing epidemics. But this time,...
Join the German Zero CO2 initiative!
German Zero CO2 is a large-scale campaign to make Germany carbon neutral by 2035. Where we stand: The world is drifting into a +4 degree future, with devastating consequences for our livelihoods and for humanity. If we want to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees, no...
One Hundred and Eighty Kilotons
What can cycling do to reduce CO2 emissions in Bremen? Here we calculate what has been done, what hasn’t, and what can be done in the coming decade. With Fridays for Future developing a regular presence on the streets of Bremen, a transport transition blog like...
Ralph Saxe – Transport Revolution In 2019?
English subtitles available. Click the subtitles icon towards the bottom right of the screen. With Bremen's state election looming next year, and the Greens riding high in the polls, there is a very real chance that they will form a strengthened half of any new...
Berlin : From Grassroots Movement to Mobility Act
On June 28th 2018 Berlin’s Parliament signed a new Mobility Act into effect. This was the final point of a more than two and a half-year long campaign by the Initiative Citizens Referendum for Cycling in Berlin and their umbrella organization Changing Cities....
Portland – Myth and Reality
Following a television documentary about the “do it yourself” and bicycle culture in Portland, Oregon, last year, many Bremers, and especially cyclists, asked me if Portland is really as cool as all the hype. Well-signed bike route through residential streets in the...
Dangerous drivers from a parent’s perspective
Sunday night on the way home from the swimming pool my 8 year old daughter and I were almost run over by a car turning left into the crosswalk where we were (legally!) crossing the street. Unfortunately we experience similar situations several times a week, since...
Park(ing) Day in Neustadt
Invitation: Park(ing) Day in Bremer Neustadt, Buntentorsteinweg on 15 September 2017 from 14:00 - 17:00 hrs. Help us convert a few on-street parking spaces to a green oasis or a living room. Come along for a snack of coffee and cake, for a game of chess, for...
Reinhard Loske
„Give cyclists clear advantages over cars“. That is probably the essence of ex-Bremen transport senator Reinhard Loske’s transport policy credo. Herr Loske, who is also a significant critic of endless economic growth, will be back in Bremen next weekend to speak...
Cycling Referendum in Berlin: When Politicians Are Compelled to Act
Berlin’s Volksentscheid Fahrrad initiative (VEF), launched in November 2015, has within a very short time kindled an unprecedented public debate about cycling. The "Radentscheid" has become a perennial favourite of the Berlin media (see Media Coverage) and is now...
A View from Newcastle
Let me introduce myself. I grew up in Germany but exchanged Braunschweig, my place of birth and study, for Newcastle in North England, when I was 23 years old. I am now 43, a Chartered Engineer (Dipl.-Ing) in Civil and Environmental Engineering. Last year, I...
Jan Gehl – Cities for People
Jan Gehl – Architect, Urban Planner, Visionary and Humanist Jan Gehl is an experienced architect and urban planner from Copenhagen with a very special view on his environment. Today he has become something of a patron for pedestrians and cyclists. He gained fame with...
TRANSFORMATION
Senators drag feet over illegal parking
In our article on pavement parking from January 2021, we drew attention to a lawsuit pending at the Bremen Administrative Court against illegal pavement parking. Now there is a judgement: it was published on 22.2.22 and, among other things, upholds the plaintiffs'...
Without empathy no transport transition
Why we need empathy on the road, or what does „Black Lives Matter“ and the current discourse on systemic racism have in common with transportation politics?photo: Mohamed Hassan on pixabay I am “white,“ but racism and, worse, its subconscious and systemic nature in...
Cycling Women in the 19th Century in Bremen
or: How the Germans could become more beautiful and happier (Ricarda Huch) “I believe that if all Germans cycled, they would lose their dull sensuality and be happier and more agreeable.” (Ricarda Huch to Richard Huch 1896) The Free Hanseatic City of Bremen was a...
How to Transform A Busy Street
A transport transition needs to be attractive as well as contributing to safer cycling and walking . How could that work? A cycle street free of car traffic in the middle of the city, on a main road? Is that possible? Major tram hubs, lit and sheltered, right...
Platz Da! Parliament Agrees Compromise
Platz Da! (There's Space!) Bremen has collected 6,000 signatures in the Hanseatic city and held endless debates with politicians to make more space in Bremen for all people. Platz da! has fought for state-wide parking management, for the abolition of parking on...
Politicians Moved to Address Sielwall
Sielwall - young men with overly-souped up cars race through it, and local politicians are finally seeing this as the danger that it is. Now the Sielwall and all four roads which lead to the so-called Sielwalleck are to be closed to car traffic up to 80 metres in each...
Cycling In Mixed Traffic? No!
I’m profoundly disturbed by the notion that, as an experienced cyclist, I “should” ride in mixed traffic alongside cars and trucks. Doing so makes cycling more stressful and dangerous. As a non-motorized “lightweight” I’ve “lost” this “game” before I even start. ...
Bremens first Protected Cycling Lane?
Bremen's Neustadt - located in the centre of Bremen, on the left bank of the Weser - is developing into one of Bremen's liveliest districts. However, the Friedrich-Ebert-Straße (see our post about Parking Day 2019 in Bremen) - a traffic axis designed at the height of...
Parking Day: Or how to civilise a traffic hell
The Friedrich-Ebert-Strasse in the Neustadt district of Bremen is heavily congested, or better said: a four-lane traffic hell. People who live on this road are exposed to unbearable levels of noise and air pollution every day. Because this road - 30 m wide, then 60 m...
Resident Parking – Transport Transition or Motorist Appeasement?
The new Draft Agreement on Cooperation in a Government Coalition for Bremen, 2019-2023 (from now on here called Koa Treaty) promises to install resident parking, to ban illegal parking and to push back the illegal practice of parking on pavements with two wheels....
Think Green? Vote Red?
Election day is approaching, we all have to decide how to vote. And it will be difficult, because coalition talks will follow. How do we achieve a coalition that promotes a sustainable, green transport policy and takes the climate crisis seriously? Earlier this month...
Platz Da! Bremen enters the Home Straight
The collection of signatures for the citizen motion Platz Da! (we reported) is on the home straight. With the help of over 20 collectors and over 80 shop owners and businesses in Bremen, 4,500 supporters have signed the petition to date. To ensure the petition's...
A Vote For Cycling?
After this week’s Buten un Binnen Wahl Lokal broadcast failed to address the self-proclaimed second most important issue in the forthcoming election (transport), we thought we would be helpful and provide a summary of the main parties’ positions. Seven parties...
Camp 2021 – German City Campaigns Get Networked
Following the success of Volksentscheid Fahrrad in Berlin, which now commits Germany’s capital city to a 600 million euro programme of transformation of its cycling infrastructure, a number of its key activists have helped establish Changing Cities. This new...
The Desperados of Schwachhausen
Bremen’s Transport Development Plan is again under attack from the car-friendly city brigade. Just a few weeks after it decided to increase the number of parking spaces on the controversial Parkallee cycle street, the local council in Schwachhausen has proposed...
Mobility, Politics and Activism
Our contributor Katja Leyendecker presented an outline of her dissertation during a visit to Bremen and the Geographische Gesellschaft, Bremen on 16th Januar 2019. Here is her presentation in full. You can also download her slideshow here. The presentation is largely...
“Platz Da!” Moves Up A Gear
The "Platz Da!" initiative has officially launched, as reported in the Weserkurier and on the telly. “Platz Da! Bremen "is involving a growing number of Bremen citizens who are working together for a better cycling and walking infrastructure, and a...
Ralph Saxe – Transport Revolution In 2019?
English subtitles available. Click the subtitles icon towards the bottom right of the screen. With Bremen's state election looming next year, and the Greens riding high in the polls, there is a very real chance that they will form a strengthened half of any new...
Three Steps Forward
Where now for the Bremen Bündnis für die Verkehrswende? Last month’s packed Car Parking conference certainly generated significant media interest, with speaker Uta Bauer interviewed by the Weser Kurier, and Radio Bremen’s Buten un Binnen doing a major feature on the...
Berlin : From Grassroots Movement to Mobility Act
On June 28th 2018 Berlin’s Parliament signed a new Mobility Act into effect. This was the final point of a more than two and a half-year long campaign by the Initiative Citizens Referendum for Cycling in Berlin and their umbrella organization Changing Cities....
Kids or Cars?
(Click on CC to choose English subtitles) The hilarious everyday experience of transport campaigns in Bremen (an extract) - Temporary play street: Turned down - Application for cycle stands and bollards on pavements to keep the street entrance clear for emergency...
Women on bikes – There is a difference
„The bicycle has done more for the emancipation of middle and upper class women then all the struggles of the womens’ movement“. So wrote the Austrian authoress and feminist Rosa Mayreder (1858-1938). The first female cyclists came from wealthy families, taking the...
Parking Space to Cycle Space? Not In Bremen
With the recent publication of proposals for comprehensive parking management by Bremen's Transport Transition coalition, there’s been considerable discussion in the city’s media about the problem of illegal parking. Little has been said about its direct impact...
Open Letter to the Bremen Government
It's National Illegal Parking Week in Germany. As part of a series of actions in Bremen, the Bremen Alliance for A Transport Transition sent the following letter to members of the state government of the State of Bremen: Dear Mayor of Bremen, and dear Bremen Senators,...
Sharing a car in Bremen: What we gain
We’ve had enough! More and more cars fill our streets, less and less space for everyone else. So what could a CarSharing (Car Club) system do for us? If several people share one car we need less of them, and fewer parking spaces are needed. In Bremen nearly...
Dangerous drivers from a parent’s perspective
Sunday night on the way home from the swimming pool my 8 year old daughter and I were almost run over by a car turning left into the crosswalk where we were (legally!) crossing the street. Unfortunately we experience similar situations several times a week, since...
Biebricher Straße – 30 Parking Spaces
The following video was shot in the summer of 2015 and the street scenes were filmed at an information afternoon organized by the “Citizen’s inititiative of Biebricher Strasse” campaigning for the space in their street being available for all citizens, not just...
“The Law Is An Ass”, Said Alice
The on-going local spat between citizen activists and the Bremen authorities in Neustadt took another twist last week, as the former tried their hand at legal parking, and the latter responded with the, umm, full weight of the law. The Alice in Wonderland, parallel...
Out of the Blue and Into the Black
Right, here’s a post for people who like their rock ’n’ roll loud. Regular readers of our blog may remember our post back in September about a citizens’ initiative in Bremen’s Neustadt. In an attempt to calm traffic in their streets, and after years of official...
Out of the Blue
The Neustadt, a densely populated district of Bremen on the south bank of the river Weser, is described in official literature as offering quiet streets with charming old houses. However, like so many other such areas, the charm is cursed by the demands of the car and...