Cycling promotion efforts in Nordhorn honored once more

The city of Nordhorn in Lower Saxony has been honoured with the Future Prize Climate Local 2018 for its project to expand "comfort cycling paths." The award was presented by Lower Saxony's Environment Minister Olaf Lies at the Old Town Hall in Hannover on August 28, 2018.

The Comfort Bike Paths project aims to expand the cycling route along the Nordhorn-Almelo and connecting canals from the Dutch border to the Ems-Vechte canal. Large sections of the bike path were extensively renovated, and where widening was not possible, a second lane was added. This improved infrastructure is intended to make it easier for citizens to switch from cars to climate-friendly bicycles in their daily lives.

The jury of the "Climate Local" competition, organised every two years by the Lower Saxony municipal associations and the Ministry of the Environment, particularly praised the project from Nordhorn as future-oriented. The organisation that awarded the prize for the most innovative climate protection project in the 2018 competition is not specified in the provided search results.

The competition honours outstanding municipal climate protection projects in Lower Saxony. In 2018, 16 out of 46 projects submitted dealt with climate-friendly mobility, a significant increase from previous rounds. This trend towards climate-friendly mobility was also noted by Bernhard Reuter, the President of the Lower Saxony Association of Towns and Municipalities.

The city of Nordhorn is not the only winner of the competition. The municipality of Cremlingen was the overall winner and is now officially the "Lower Saxony Climate Community 2018." The prize is worth 5,000 euros, and the municipality will use the money to implement future climate protection projects.

The Comfort Cycling Paths project by the city of Nordhorn is not the first recognition it has received. In February, the project finished third nationwide and was awarded the German Cycling Prize. The prize money from the German Cycling Prize will be used by the Nordhorn council to implement future cycling projects.

Changes in right-of-way rules were made at the intersections of Heseper Weg and Frensdorferhaar in favour of cyclists as part of the project. A continuous, priority-comfort bike path connection of approximately seven kilometres has been created, making cycling in Nordhorn a more enjoyable and accessible experience for its citizens.

The jury noted that the urban planning principle of the car-friendly city is outdated and that increasing quality of life through green spaces, as well as health and climate protection through emission-free mobility, are gaining importance. The Comfort Bike Paths project in Nordhorn is a step towards achieving this goal, making it an excellent example for other municipalities to follow.