The planned FRM6 cycle highway is meant to give cyclists a fast, safe link between Butzbach, on the northern edge of the Wetterau, and Frankfurt. The route is around 50 kilometres long; reasonably sporty riders on e-bikes would need roughly two hours. Its main benefit, according to the report, would be safer and more comfortable trips between the towns along the corridor. The route is not finished, but in Butzbach it is taking shape after back-and-forth in the city council and opposition from parts of the local motoring lobby.
Agreement on the project dates back to June 2020, when representatives of Bad Nauheim, Butzbach, Bad Vilbel, Frankfurt, Friedberg, Karben, Wöllstadt and the Wetterau district signed a cooperation contract for the cycle highway. Butzbach’s magistrate approved the project in its current form in 2022. The following year, the Regionalverband Frankfurt/Rhein-Main, responsible for cross-local planning, presented a feasibility study intended as a basis for the eight participating cities’ own decisions. Sections in Bad Nauheim and Bad Vilbel have already been built to the relevant standard along the route.
On Tuesday, Butzbach’s city politicians are to discuss the draft municipal budget for next year. If they follow the recent decision of the building committee, they will set aside money for building sections of the cycle highway on the town’s territory. The committee voted in favour. The city is to secure funding for the road In der Alböhn in the south of the core town, where it meets the B 3. Elsewhere, existing farm tracks are to be widened to four metres as parts of the route. The city says it must submit the corresponding application to the state by the end of November; under the proposal before councillors, construction would then have to be completed by June 2028.
The administration is giving the voluntary local politicians a double choice. They can also opt for another variant: rejecting the expansion of the road and farm tracks and forgoing the funding. That would end the FRM6 at Nieder-Mörlen rather than reaching Butzbach, to the annoyance of many cyclists in and around the town. It would also deprive the town, described as a pearl of the Wetterau, of the chance to become more attractive to cycle tourists at a time when cycling and cycle touring have grown in popularity.
The project had already come before city councillors in September, but no decision was taken. Instead, the administration was asked to examine how Butzbach could reduce its costs. Initially, the figure was 3.2 million euros, including resurfacing the road In der Alböhn. By dropping those works, the magistrate’s proposal now puts the cost at just under 1.7 million euros, with a subsidy of 1.45 million euros. Butzbach would therefore have to finance only 210,000 euros over three years, plus a smaller five-figure sum for the farm tracks.
Rouven Kötter, first deputy of the Regionalverband, said it was right that Butzbach did not reject the expansion outright in September given its budget difficulties. He noted that two sections of the FRM6 on Butzbach territory had already been partly completed with funding. “Of course we have to talk about costs and the effects on traffic. But anyone who wants to move people to switch must first offer them a safe and attractive alternative,” Kötter told the F.A.Z. He cautioned that today’s number of cyclists cannot be the sole standard for tomorrow’s infrastructure.
Resistance to the project is “for us a mandate to find solutions and stay on it,” Kötter said. In Butzbach, according to the report, criticism has come from politically engaged people who regard cyclists as a hindrance in road traffic and cannot reconcile themselves to an expansion for the FRM6 in the core town. Nevertheless, the building committee voted unanimously in favour after the costs were halved.
Kötter could not predict when the cycle highway might be completed; there was never a symbolic groundbreaking. He took a pragmatic view: “We simply keep working on it, and every successfully completed section is a gain for cycling locally and in the region.” The Regionalverband is expected to signpost the first sections next year. “We are pursuing the FRM6 in the interest of the whole region. Our claim is: more freedom of choice in mobility, more safety for cyclists and an offer that convinces in everyday life,” Kötter said.
Sources: FAZ.