A Tale of Two Cities

 I live on the outskirts of Wiesbaden (city of 293,000) and directly across the river is Mainz (a city of 220,000).  In the seven mile circle from the river?  It's probably in the neighborhood of 650,000 residents.

I should note for the record, if you look at building/construction....Mainz is on pace to reach 280,000 residents in a dozen years easily.  Wiesbaden?  Probably on pace by 2030 to be around 310,00.  

Talks have come up between the two towns of a bicycle 'autobahn'.  Basically, they are going to fund a research project to determine how it would work, and where the 'crossing' would be either the Kaiserbrücke (a railway/pedestrian bridge), or a mile away at the Theodor-Heuss-Bridge (frankly, it doesn't have the space....four-lane vehicle crossing and pedestrian walkway).  

If you asked me on residents currently in a bike-thrill attitude....Mainz folks probably have a 3-to-1 ratio presently.  

How this route might work?  Well....it's hard to imagine anything beyond having some trail to start at the Wiesbaden train station....along the tracks, and leading up to the river....crossing over the Kaiserbrücke and still using the tracks to build a trail up to the Mainz station.

The problem selling this route?  Presently....if you did bike this way....it's a 32 minute trail, and if you enhanced it with paved roads....you probably wouldn't trim more than 5 minutes off the route.

Amount of work involved besides paving?  Well....the bridge at the Kaiserbrücke would need a winding/spiral trail to reach the height of the bridge, and some type of attachment to allow pedestrians to still walk across.  Cost factor?  I'd say with paving and bridge work....more than 15-million Euro.  

The fact that bulk of Wiesbaden streets just aren't that friendly with bicyclists?  Well....that's part of the story as well.

This looks like an empty pit where you pay a consulting company half-a-million Euro to imagine how it would work, and no one would be that thrilled with the end results.  

An improved tram network between the two?  It makes more sense, but a majority of Wiesbaden folks have said no in the past referendum.