Government earmarks €10m for public bike schemes

Transport Minister Wolfgang Tiefensee said he was going to hand out the money to town councils which produced good ideas to provide hire, or free, bicycles for the public.

His spokesman told the Die Welt newspaper the idea was to encourage and enable people to leave their cars at home, and combine public transport with the bicycles, for example, to get from the bus stop to work and back.

Tiefensee said the scheme would offer people, “no traffic jams, no hassle trying to find a park space, less nose, less carbon dioxide and more physical fitness.”

A further €2.7 million will be allocated for schemes involving electric bicycles for people who are so unfit they cannot use a normal bike.

Although the current spring days would seem to be the ideal time to launch such a scheme, it will only come into effect in the autumn.