Germany's RS1 Cycle Route: The Vision Behind a Car-Free Connection

Originally published 2019-01-16.

Germany has opened the first three-mile stretch of a bicycle highway that will eventually span over 62 miles, connecting 10 western cities including Duisburg, Bochum, and Hamm, as well as four universities.

And this highway is an entirely separate roadway that will remain completely car-free.

Like a traditional highway, this bicycle highway has passing lanes, overpasses and underpasses for crossroads, and even streetlights. However, cyclists won't have to worry about trucks zooming by or bus lanes. It's just a clear path for miles and miles.

In a study completed by regional development group RVR, it's projected to take 50,000 cars off the road each day.

Where the RS1 stood in 2024

Progress has been much slower than the 2019 article suggests. In September 2024 the North Rhine-Westphalia state government told the regional parliament that the planned RS1 runs for about 118 kilometres from Moers to Hamm, divided into 38 sections. Only four sections, about 7 kilometres in Mülheim an der Ruhr, Gelsenkirchen, Bochum and Dortmund, had been completed. About 17 kilometres were open to cyclists, including a model route of about 10 kilometres between Mülheim main station and the University of Duisburg-Essen in Essen, which is passable but too narrow and partly unpaved to meet current standards. Some 27 sections, about 100 kilometres, were still at the preliminary planning stage, and the government said it could not yet say when the whole route would be in operation.

Sources: Landtag Nordrhein-Westfalen, Drucksache 18/10474, 2 September 2024: Status und Fortschritt des Radschnellwegs Ruhr (RS1)

Source: SunnySkyz via Nature Knows

An opening section is not the whole network

The 2019 article described the first few miles of a proposed route of roughly 62 miles. An opening stretch and a completed network are different things. The regional project's own information describes the full connection and traffic reductions as outcomes of completion, not proof that every section was already open. Keeping those stages separate makes the achievement and the remaining work easier to understand.

Think in connected journeys

A useful cycle route has to connect the places people actually start and finish, not simply provide an impressive stretch in the middle. Consider junctions, access from neighbourhoods and continuity between sections when looking at the proposal. That perspective explains why network planning matters alongside the quality of an individual path. The historical article remains a useful introduction to the ambition, while the responsible project authority is the place to check current construction and access information.

Sources and context: Straßen.NRW: Radschnellweg Ruhr RS1