Cycling fatalities are rising in Germany, despite safer trends elsewhere in Europe. New figures show that older e‑bike riders are most at risk – and many crashes involve cars rather than other cyclists.
Cycling on Germany’s roads has become deadlier. New figures published on Monday show that the number of cyclists killed in traffic accidents rose again in 2025, bucking a downward trend seen across much of Europe.
The data from Germany’s Federal Statistics Office (Destatis) points in particular to the growing use of e‑bikes – known officially as pedelecs – and highlights that older riders are disproportionately affected.
For regular cyclists, whether for commuting or leisure, the figures raise uncomfortable questions about safety on German roads.
What the figures show
In absolute terms, 462 cyclists were killed in road traffic accidents in Germany in 2025, according to Destatis.
That represents an increase of 3.8 percent compared with the previous year, and a rise of 20.6 percent compared with 2015.
Over the same ten‑year period, overall traffic deaths fell by 18.4 percent, meaning that cyclists account for an increasingly large proportion of all road fatalities.
Nearly half of those killed last year – 217 people – were riding e-bikes.
Age is another striking factor. In 2025, 61.5 percent of cyclists killed were aged 65 or over. Among e-bike riders, the share was even higher at 67.3 percent, compared with 56.3 percent for riders of non‑motorised bicycles.
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The statistics also shed light on how accidents happen. Around two thirds of the nearly 96,000 bicycle accidents resulting in personal injury involved at least one other road user, most often a car driver.
Responsibility for the accident also varied markedly depending on the type of collision. In accidents involving pedestrians, the cyclist was more often deemed primarily at fault, accounting for 58.1 percent of cases.
But when car drivers were involved, cyclists bore main responsibility in only 25.3 percent of accidents, falling to 21.4 percent in collisions with commercial vehicles.
How have the figures been received?
The rise in cycling fatalities in Germany looks even starker when set against the European picture. According to analysis cited by taz newspaper, the European Road Safety Council found that cyclist fatalities across the EU fell by an average of 0.5 percent per year between 2014 and 2024.
In Germany, by contrast, deaths rose by around 1.5 percent annually over the same period.
Why the difference? Kirstin Zeidler, head of accident research at the German Insurance Association (GDV), told the German Press Agency that cycling infrastructure in the country had not kept pace with the boom in bike – and particularly e-bike – use.
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She called for targeted investment in road design, particularly safer junctions, clearer sightlines and separate traffic‑light phases for cyclists and motor vehicles.
Some cycling organisations have gone further. For example, the ADFC cycling club argues that many bike paths in Germany are inadequate or missing altogether and calls for the rapid expansion of physically separated and forgiving cycling infrastructure.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: thelocal.de
