Every year in Berlin the 'star ride' takes place. About 250,000 cyclists converge on the city centre from the peripheries in a star formation, picking up ever more riders along the way. The main traffic arteries are freed from cars on that day creating an ambience of security and fresh air. Even the autobahn is dedicated for bicycles.
It is one day in the year when cyclists can experience the full potential of their bikes. On a 6-lane autobahn there are no bumps and no problem overtaking another bike. Long distances can be covered easily in a short time while others roll along at a leisurely pace. Why are there no bike highways here? Why the special treatment for car drivers?
The main theme of the Sternfahrt this year was bicycle safety:
- cyclists are forced to share roads with deadly cars which kill many cyclists very year.
- cars cause enormous health damage to cyclists (and others) from their exhausts while the car drivers breath in far less poisonous gas and particles.
- huge budgets are spent to make car driving safer while cyclists are left vulnerable to their arbitrary violence.
The Sternfahrt was a demonstration of the superiority of bicycles as transport. Without cars they are safe, unpolluting, quiet and generate a positive ambience among people. It showed how motorised transport infrastructure could be simply taken over for bicycles to facilitate a rational and safe transport system in modern cities.
Mobility without cars.
If travellers used their own energy to propel themselves around, they would not clutter up the public roads with heavy dysfunctional encasements endangering other road users in so many ways.
More bicycles, fewer cars - protect the climate!
More rights for cyclists!
The police described the event as a disruption to traffic.
