I sat and watched an odd news piece by ARD (Channel One, public TV, here in Germany). The topic....an ongoing battle over the wooded lands by two groups....hikers and mountain-bikers.
While ARD 'hints' that this really went into turbo in the past year of Covid....I would go back and suggest that you could see the conflict coming into focus already in 2014 (as I hiked the local forests around my region of Wiesbaden).
So here is the basic issue. For decades, the Germans have 'managed' their wooded lands and had both logging roads/trails, and regular hiking paths. It was reasonably managed....maps existed and some signs (not a lot) were there to guide you from area to area.
Hikers have been using the trails for decades, and they are generally advertised at the local level and even state level.
Around thirty years ago, as mountain-biking arrived and became a sport....they discovered the hiking trails.
It's not unusual to be on a trail walking and suddenly hear a bell....to find a biker quickly approaching at 15 to 20 kph. In a downhill situation....the speed might get up to around 50 kph (30 mph).
In the last couple of years....the hikers have taken to complaining over the bikers, and part of this discussion is that the bikers have developed 'unapproved' trails.
Wooded ramps assembled out in the middle of nowhere....where the bikers conduct 'jumps'? Well....yeah.
All of this heading toward a confrontation and laws to be written? You can see the pressure building up, and there's little love between the two groups.
No comments:
Post a Comment