Germans see their cities on the right track

How safe do Europe's citizens feel on the roads? Cyclomedia, a provider of geodata technology, has published the Urban Road Safety Index (URSI) 2024 on this question, a comprehensive study that compares people's perceptions of road safety in 32 major European cities. Munich ranks in the top 10 for general road safety perception.

Among German cities, Munich residents feel the safest on the roads. 84% of respondents said they felt "safe" (56%) or "very safe" (28%). Hamburg follows closely behind with 80 percent - and is particularly impressive in that 31 percent of Hamburg residents feel "very safe". This is not only the highest value in this category among German cities, but also in the whole of Europe. Berlin also scores well with 55% ("safe") and 18% ("very safe"). Cologne and Frankfurt are close behind.

The general mood in Germany is fairly homogeneous. In a Europe-wide comparison, however, there are considerable differences in the perception of safety. The picture is particularly bleak in Rome and Athens: In Rome, 60 percent of respondents feel that road traffic is (very) unsafe, in Athens the figure is as high as 68 percent. The highest perception of safety in Europe is found in Tallinn (Estonia), where 88% of respondents said they felt safe or very safe.

There is still room for improvement in the area of cycling infrastructure in German cities. While 62% of respondents in Munich consider the cycle paths in their city to be safe, this figure is just over half in Frankfurt (55%) and Hamburg (52%), only 49% in Berlin and 47% in Cologne. Here, German cities can take their cue from leaders such as Helsinki (79 percent).

Surprisingly, the cycling city of Amsterdam is in the bottom third when it comes to the safety of cycle paths, with only 44 percent approval. It is also astonishing that 81% of Amsterdam residents consider the road infrastructure to be inadequate for new forms of mobility such as e-scooters and e-bikes.

The study paints a mixed picture when it comes to charging infrastructure for electric vehicles. In Frankfurt, 56% of respondents believe that there should be more charging points for electric cars, compared to only 42% in Berlin.

While 57% of residents in Rome are concerned about possible bridge collapses, Germans were generally more relaxed at the time of the study - with interesting regional differences. In Cologne, known for its Rhine bridges, as many as 37% of respondents were concerned about possible bridge collapses. This is significantly more than in Munich, where only 24% expressed such fears. Berlin is in the middle of the field with 26 percent of concerned citizens.

"These results may reflect the public debate about the state of infrastructure in various regions of Germany," comments Cyclomedia Germany Managing Director Thomas Homrighausen. "They show that the issue of bridge safety is definitely present in people's minds, albeit to varying degrees." However, this picture may have changed following the recent collapse of the Elbe bridge in Dresden.

The Urban Road Safety Index 2024 "shows where we stand and where we need to go to make our cities safer and more liveable. The challenges are manifold, but German cities are on the right track from the perspective of their citizens, despite some deficits, summarizes Thomas Homrighausen the results from his point of view. (aum)