This is a local Wiesbaden type story which curiously now gets front-page attention in the local area.
In this region, we have a secondary road called B-42, which I would have to rate as one of the top twenty most scenic drives in Germany. It runs from Wiesbaden, along the Rhine River, through Rudesheim, Lorchhausen, and on up to Koblenz. The road itself? Highly maintained, and mostly a two-lane with occasional third lane added for passing.
Someone (probably a decade ago) came up with this idea of bike 'road' (path) going from Lorchausen to Rudesheim. It's an area of about 16 km (9.9 miles). The idea was....some folks would like to take the train over to Rudesheim, and maybe bike that 16 km with the bike they brought on the train, and at the end of the day....return themselves (and the bike) back to their original home, from Rudesheim.
So politicians from Hessen got involved. No one says what the original plan was, or how it was presented in the early days of planning. But the project is now signed off and going forward.
The present cost? Well.....115 million Euro. Yes, for a bike trail of 9.9 miles. In US currency, it's around 130-million dollars.
Roughly 10-million Euro per kilometer? Yes. For what amounts to a two-meter wide bike road? Yes.
Locals will say that it's a plus-up for some folks (the bike-enthusiast type), but for the other 95-percent crowd....it has no value. How this progressed up the chain, and the 115 million Euro were never openly discussed? Well, that's the extent of planning these days in Germany....the public rarely finds out about things like this.
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