Source: Adobe Stock / JFL Photography
Cycling is beneficial to society in many ways: be it as a climate-friendly form of mobility that helps achieve the Federal Government’s climate goals, as a daily physical activity that promotes health, or, for children and young people, as an early opportunity to develop important skills for safe use of the roads. Together with walking, it already accounts for 37% of all journeys and makes up a significant part of the mobility mix in Germany – for everyday journeys, for combined journeys, for young and old. The Federal Ministry of Transport therefore promotes and supports cycling in a variety of forms within the means at its disposal.
Since 2026, federal funding for cycling and walking is primarily provided through the Climate and Transformation Fund.
This applies to the financial assistance for the Cities and Rural Areas special programme and for cycle superhighways, as well as to the titles of the capital and non-capital programmes for promoting cycling and walking. These funding programmes are combined under the ‘Active Mobility’ title in the Climate and Transformation Fund. The ‘Bicycle parking garages at railway stations’ programme, which was initiated by the German Bundestag's Budget Committee, is fully funded until 2027.
How to read the table: The amounts are given in thousands of euros.
Funding measure
2026 budget funds in thousand euros | |
|---|---|
| Funding from the Climate and Transformation Fund: | |
| Promotion of active mobility1 | 78,339 |
| Bicycle parking garages at railway stations | 15,692 |
| Financial assistance to the federal states for the Cities and Rural Areas special programme | 281,000 |
| Financial assistance for cycle superhighways | 58,487 |
| Funding from the departmental budget of the Federal Ministry of Transport: | |
| Construction of cycle tracks along federal highways2 | 100,000 |
| Upgrading of towpaths along federal waterways for cycling use | 11,600 |
| Funding of cycling over- and underpasses on railway lines in accordance with section 17 of the Railway Crossings Act (Eisenbahnkreuzungsgesetz, EKrG): | 7,500 |
| Total | 552,618 |
1) Programmes under the new ‘Promotion of active mobility’ title: Financial aid for non-capital model projects, funding of cycling pilot projects, financial aid for the upgrading and extension of the German Cycling Network (share excluded from the table)
2) Construction and maintenance of cycle tracks along federal highways, which the Federal Government is responsible for, cannot be subsidized but is fully financed by the Federal Government.