A love letter to my favourite Fahrradstraße in Hamburg

I grew up watching cartoons on Fox Kids, like The Kids from Room 402, What’s with Andy?, and Life with Louie. One thing I often saw in these cartoons was children going to school by bike. Sadly, this was not common in Turkey, where I grew up, because the roads were not safe for cycling.

I got my first real bike, a Bianchi, when I was 10. Most of the time, I cycled with my friends in a big park in our neighbourhood during the summer. Even though my school was close and many people walked there, I do not remember seeing a single child cycling to school. This stayed with me. Maybe I could not cycle to school, but I wanted to cycle to work in the future.

When I first came to Hamburg for a summer internship in 2017, I was amazed by the cycling infrastructure. Hamburg was the first city I visited outside of Turkey. Seeing people cycle to school and work made me fall in love with the city.

That same summer, another intern, who later became my friend, and I wanted to go on a cycling trip. We rented bikes from StadtRAD and cycled towards Moorfleet. Cycling next to a river already felt special to me, but seeing places that were only easy to reach by bike made me think that a bike can give you so much freedom.

In 2018, I moved to Hamburg for work. Just one week later, I bought a bike. Since then, I have been cycling in Hamburg. I do not have the exact numbers for all those years, but at the end of August 2022, I bought an e-bike. Since then, I can see that I have cycled more than 5.000 km in the city.

I really love cycling. I almost always cycle and often do not even use public transport. I have cycled under the sun, in heavy rain, in strong wind, and even in snow. I would not recommend cycling in snow, though, because steering becomes quite hard and snow gets stuck in your mudguards.

Since I moved here, I can see that the cycling infrastructure has been getting better and better. Of course, Hamburg probably still cannot compete with cities in the Netherlands. But commuting by bike has become more enjoyable.

When I commute, I do not always choose the shortest route. I also try to choose the route I enjoy the most. There is one place I often choose when I go to the city centre, even if it makes my trip a bit longer. I especially choose it when the weather is nice. That place is the Fahrradstraße on Alsterrufer and Harvestehuder Weg, next to the Alster.

In case you do not know what a Fahrradstraße is, I did not use the English translation because I feel like “bike street” does not fully explain it. A Fahrradstraße is a special kind of street. At first, it looks similar to a normal street for cars, but cyclists have priority. This means that if you are cycling and there is a car behind you, the driver cannot honk at you or push you to move faster. They simply have to drive behind you. The speed limit is also 30 km/h. Unlike on many cycle paths, you are also allowed to cycle side by side with another cyclist.

This makes a Fahrradstraße one of the best types of streets for cycling in the city. What makes the Fahrradstraße on Alsterrufer and Harvestehuder Weg even better is that it is the longest Fahrradstraße in Hamburg, with a distance of 2,3 km. This means you can cycle all the way without stopping, because there are no traffic lights.

And that is not all. While you cycle there, you have the Alster on your right side. On your left side, you have beautiful houses. The street is also covered by trees on both sides, which makes the ride even nicer. On hot summer days, the shade from the trees feels really good.

Until the end of 2025, the experience on this Fahrradstraße was not very smooth because of the US Consulate, also known as the Little White House. It needed a security area around it, and that blocked part of the route. Cyclists had to use a cycle path next to the pedestrian path, and it was often crowded. This sometimes caused problems.

In 2022, the US government decided to move out because the building was too big for them. This allowed the city to remove the security area in 2024. Later, in 2025, the whole section was renovated. Now the Fahrradstraße is a smooth cycling route from Kennedybrücke to the traffic light at the start of Krugkoppelbrücke.

Krugkoppelbrücke makes this ride even more special. In my opinion, you get the best view in Hamburg from that bridge. So in the end, you have a smooth cycling route that finishes with an amazing view. That is why I almost always take this route when I cycle back to home from the city centre.

At the end of the bridge, another Fahrradstraße starts on Leinpfad. I do not use this one as often, but it is also very nice. You cycle next to a canal, and this time you have beautiful houses on your right side.

The problem with this Fahrradstraße is St. Benedict-Straße, which cuts through the street after around 500 metres and has traffic lights. From there, you can continue cycling to Hayns Park for 1,1 km. There is another crossing at Goernebrücke, but there is no traffic light and the traffic is quite low. Without the traffic light at St. Benedict-Straße, this would be one of the longest Fahrradstraßen in Hamburg, with a distance of 1,6 km.

I wonder if there are any plans to connect these two long Fahrradstraßen. If you are a cyclist, you know that you often lose a lot of time when you stop at traffic lights. You also lose speed. Because of this, your commute can become around 10 to 20 percent longer.

When I count my commute from home to Jungfernstieg through the Fahrradstraße next to the Alster, I pass around 15 traffic lights. If I choose another route without a Fahrradstraße, this number goes up to 22. At the same time, I do not know how connecting these streets would be possible without making the experience worse for other people.

When I was a child, cycling to school looked like something that only happened in cartoons. It felt simple, normal, and free, but also very far away from my own life. Today, when I cycle on a Fahrradstraße in Hamburg, especially next to the Alster, I sometimes think about that feeling.

Maybe I could not cycle to school when I was a child. But I hope more children in Hamburg can grow up in a city where cycling somewhere is not something special. It is just part of everyday life.