Cycling and mountain biking
in Heidelberg city forest
The forest paths of the ‘Vorderer Odenwald’ region are easily accessible from several major urban centers. They are also a good way of getting to various exciting tourist destinations. As a result, the paths are used heavily by a wide range of user groups, from hikers, joggers, dog owners and horse riders to foresters, hunters, cyclists and mountain bikers. The biggest potential for conflict is between the walkers and mountain bikers, because of the great difference in speed between them. Heidelberg has recently made some changes to the routing for visitors to the forest in order to meet the needs of all users more effectively. The tendency now is to provide different paths for different groups, rather than having them share the same trails.
Two recent projects are a good example of this: The freeride training route on the Königstuhl hill, and the mountain bike trails through the Odenwald mountains.
The aim of these two projects is not to create new tourist attractions to bring even more visitors to the city forest. Instead, they are actually part of a larger concept designed to slow down the pace of activities in the forest. This may sound paradoxical, but in fact is entirely logical: Recognizing and then meeting the demand for legal mountain-biking and cross-country trails helps to keep the faster-paced sports within certain areas of the forest, making it quieter elsewhere.
As the law states:
In the state of Baden-Württemberg, cycling is only permitted on hard forest paths of at least two meters wide. Anyone cycling on narrow, undeveloped paths, or ‘cross-country’, is breaking the law, and may be putting others in danger.
But narrow trails are attractive for mountain bikers (and of course hikers too), so the City of Heidelberg has decided to officially designate some of the narrow paths in the forest for cyclists.
Be considerate!
… is the golden rule for visitors to the forest. Everyone has a right to recreation and sport, but not if it disturbs or endangers other people.