Stuttgart lies in a hollow and is surrounded by forest, ideal terrain for single trails. In Baden-Württemberg, however, the rule is that cycling on paths less than two meters wide is prohibited. A single trail has been legalized for mountain bikers in Stuttgart - rather narrow for a city with over 630,000 inhabitants.
In recent months, there have been more police checks in the forests around the city and some mountain bikers have been fined. "Throughout Germany, you can legally ride on such trails, but not here. We are calling on the city council to deal openly and fairly with mountain bikers," Benedikt Herré is quoted as saying in the Stuttgarter Zeitung. He is a board member of the Mountainbike Stuttgart association, which organized the manifestation. To demonstrate that a single legal trail is not enough, a larger group of mountain bikers then took to the trails. The demo organizers were unable to say where they see themselves on the way to abolishing the two-metre rule.