Cycle highway

Brief info

• Project phase: Planning

Current

An information meeting on the cycle highway took place on 23.01.2024. Further information and the digital documents can also be found on the Strassen.nrw.de website of the state of NRW.

Map

The project

The Euregio cycle highway connects Aachen and Herzogenrath over a length of around 14 km with connections to Heerlen and Kerkrade. Thanks to its construction standard, the cycle highway creates an attractive cycling infrastructure that enables users to cycle safely and comfortably at high speeds throughout. The high travel speed results from the fact that you can get from one place to another as quickly as possible due to uninterrupted travel (e.g. few stops at priority intersections or traffic lights) and not due to a high travel speed. This also encourages commuters to switch from motor vehicles to bicycles. In this way, a contribution can be made to reducing pollution and noise and thus to climate protection.

State of affairs

Between June 2015 and summer 2016, a two-stage public participation process was carried out for the Euregio Cycle Superhighway. In stage 1, all citizens were able to submit their own route proposals and comments. In stage 2, depending on the section, three to four selected route variants were presented and discussed in local public workshops. After weighing up the feedback and various planning concerns, the City of Aachen's Mobility Committee decided on 23.06.2016 to complete the feasibility study in Aachen on this basis.

The feasibility study for the Euregio cycle highway has been available since 2017. The local political bodies in the StädteRegion and the two cities approved this feasibility study and the preferred option it identified with large majorities in summer 2017.

As a result of the amendment to the NRW Road and Route Act in 2016/17, cycle highways were given the same status as state roads. As a result, the lead responsibility for cycle highways in NRW lies with the NRW state road authority. However, the City of Aachen remains responsible for the inner-city parts of the cycle highway in Aachen - the so-called local crossings. The same procedural steps apply to cycle highways due to their equal status as state roads. Therefore, despite the existing feasibility study, further extensive documents had to be prepared and adapted for the prescribed procedural steps.

From the beginning of 2024, the coordination process for the variants will be carried out with the public interest groups (authorities, utility companies, public transport authorities and transport companies, agriculture, etc.) and the recognized nature conservation associations. In addition, citizens are to be involved as part of an early public participation process. To this end, there was an information meeting on 18.01.2024 in Herzogenrath and on 23.01.2024 in Aachen. Information will be announced in the media and here , among other places.

Extensive documentation can be found here on the project pages of Straßen NRW, and here on the Euregio cycle highway.

Political consulting

14.12.2023: Consultation in the Mobility Committee (status of the start of the line identification procedure)

22.01.2022: Consultation in the Mobility Committee (status report on the results of the environmental impact study (EIS))

31.10.2019: Consultation in the Mobility Committee (the administration reports on the administrative agreement)

24.01.2019: Consultation in the Mobility Committee (status report)

06.07.2017: Consultation in the Mobility Committee (continuation of planning on the basis of the existing feasibility study and the route developed therein decided)

23.06.2016: Consultation in the Mobility Committee (completion of the feasibility study including the benefit-cost analysis with defined route variants decided)

21.01.2016: Consultation in the Mobility Committee (the administration reports on the evaluation criteria and the variants that will be pursued further in the participation process)

10.09.2015: Consultation in the Mobility Committee (The administration informs about the first citizen participation)

18.06.2015: Consultation in the Mobility Committee (initial results of the feasibility study with potential analysis and environmental impact study are presented).

12.12.2013: Consultation in the Mobility Committee (administration is commissioned to submit a funding application to the state of North Rhine-Westphalia for the feasibility study of the cycle highway)

08.03.2012: Consultation in the Mobility Committee (motion by the SPD parliamentary group: City of Aachen and StädteRegion Aachen should jointly define possible high-speed cycle path connections)