Overview
- Police and the Verkehrsdirektion began the campaign with morning checks outside Heinrich-Hertz-Schule in Winterhude, where the principal reported most lights were working and backed the effort.
- The three-week initiative, run under the motto “Hamburg gibt Acht!”, focuses on schoolchildren’s bicycles during the darker months.
- Teams inspect lighting and overall bike function, offer minor repairs on the spot, and advise on reflective clothing and considerate riding.
- Authorities cite the scale of need, noting about 222,000 pupils attend 422 general-education schools in Hamburg and many travel by bike.
- Last year’s three-week checks at 34 schools examined 2,270 bikes, found 326 with partly serious defects, and followed a year with 770 dusk or dark cycling crashes and 625 people partly seriously injured.