What's Your City's Excuse?

Liverpool GB vs Münster DE

Metric Unit Liverpool GB Münster DE
Annual Rainfall mm/year 824.3 758.0
Avg Rainfall Per Rain Day mm/day 4.7 3.9
Wind Exposure index 9.0 5.0
Snow Cover days/year 16.0 20.0
Average Daily Sunshine hours/day 7.1 4.2
Winter Daylight hours 8.5 8.0
Average Trip Distance km 11.8 11.8
Average Urban Gradient % 1.2 0.4

Cycling Mode Share (All Trips)

Liverpool

1.0%

Münster

20.0%

No physical or environmental constraint explains this gap.

The difference can only be explained by policy, governance, and a lack of infrastructure investment.

What each city invested in

Counts physically separated cycle infrastructure, including greenways and off-road routes formally designated for cycling. As figures come from OpenStreetMap, some primarily recreational routes may be included.

Liverpool

264.7 km

cycle paths & tracks

across 665 km²

(0.40 km/km²)

Münster

50.5 km

cycle paths & tracks

across 687 km²

(0.07 km/km²)

Network density guide (km/km²)

< 0.5 Token infrastructure. Patchy. Bikes as transport stays niche.
0.5 - 1.0 Some corridors exist. Still disconnected. Modal share struggles to exceed 10-15%.
1.5 - 2.0 Continuous networks in many neighbourhoods. Bikes as transport can reach 20-30% if quality is high.
2.0 - 4.0 Dense, fine-grained, low-stress network. Bikes as transport becomes normalised and default for short trips.
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