Massive cycling expressway will link Hamburg and Lüneburg in 2026

The project is part of the Hanseatic city’s idea to build seven cycling expressways reaching out to the countryside with a collective length of 300 kilometres

Today, authorities in Hamburg announced that the Federal Government in Germany will support the construction of a bicycle expressway between the Hanseatic City and Lüneburg to the tune of 8.6 million euros.

The funding will cover 1.9 kilometres of the project, a very difficult section that includes the construction of five bridge structures that cost 11.5 million combined. Development of this section is set to start as early as 2022 and is set to finish in 2026.

The bicycle expressway will be a state of the art infrastructure project that could fundamentally change the commuting habits of the southern part of the city. The expressway will be four metres wide, meaning that it has the potential to take on enormous amounts of cycle traffic.

The mobility transition in the Hanseatic City

The expressway will help to increase the cohesion between the northern and southern parts of Hamburg, divided by the harbour district and the Elbe. The final project will, however, stretch beyond the limits of the city to an impressive length of 50 kilometres.

This is quite a large infrastructure project and is the product of a collaboration between authorities in Lüneburg, Harburg, Stelle and Seeveta, as well as traffic authorities. It will pass near many industrial areas that are of local and national significance and provide a strong argument for commuters to ditch their cars for more sustainable means of transportation.

Furthermore, the city is planning to build a total of 300 kilometres of expressways in the Hamburg metropolitan area. The seven arms of the expressway system will stretch towards Bad Bramstedt, Ahrensburg, Geesthacht, Lüneburg, Stade, Elmshorn and Tostedt.

Although other cities also have cycling expressways in the works, very few are as ambitious as the proposed development plan in Hamburg. Nevertheless, these projects do carry some similarities, like a width of around four metres, as well as very few crossings.

Thus, it will allow for a very fast cycling commute and, according to Volker Wissing, Minister for Digital Affairs and Transport, who was quoted in a statement by the city, would help to convince more people to leave their cars behind.