Originally, I wanted to write an announcement for Cyclingworld 2026, where Düsseldorf is the bicycle capital of Europe and the trade fair has its perfect and logical home here. But to conceptualize the entire scenario in my head is too big, too complicated a process for me to just type out on a Sunday evening on the couch. However, thanks to AI, we can consistently develop the idea from 1996, when the Red/Green coalition in Düsseldorf implemented the first bike lane on a traffic lane on Luegallee, and turn it into a success and a starting shot for our hometown towards alternative transport concepts. We'll skip the electoral victory of Joachim Erwin's CDU in 1999 and allow ourselves a vision as an alternative to a car and traffic jam capital. We'll make Düsseldorf an international pioneer of a necessary mobility transformation. A modern city that focuses on people, not car traffic.

Let's look at the consequences: Düsseldorf would probably be climate-neutral and have more than 700,000 residents. Rental prices would likely have continued to rise, but such a visionary concept would have attracted many innovative companies to Düsseldorf, which would also have increased all our salaries. We wouldn't have to discuss the problems of "left-behind" districts, because thanks to frequent train services and various cycling superhighways, outer districts of the city and neighboring communities would be much better integrated. Our gastronomy would be even more diverse and popular, because it would have large outdoor areas available not only in the summer months. Our quality of life would be so much greater because there would be plenty of space for people on the streets, for pedestrians as well as for cyclists.

Düsseldorf could not only promote itself with constantly recurring comparisons of pictures of the Rhine embankment before and after the tunnel, but simply show pictures of the city center. Because we would see strolling people instead of car queues. Families would want to move to Düsseldorf because children could cycle to school alone and play in the open spaces in the streets, because the danger from cars would be minimized. Seniors would enjoy a city without noise pollution. Logistics companies would bring their goods from the outskirts to shops and people with large e-cargo bikes. We would shop in numerous small local stores and cover our daily needs because we would gladly do without cars. Vacancies would be rare even in shops outside the city center, because the district centers would be self-sufficient. We would enjoy many new green spaces that would give our city a high quality of stay even in hot summers.

Düsseldorf would be a metropolis with international appeal, attracting innovative companies to the city, where they would find their employees. Düsseldorf would be a role model. We would have only a fraction of the 320,000 cars in the city and only a small percentage of the 400,000 commuters would drive into the city daily. Parking garages for cars and parking garages for bicycles would be equal and distributed around the city center. We would have a magnificent selection of bicycle shops that would provide people with everything that makes them happy. And of course, we would have one of the world's best bicycle trade fairs, because it simply belongs in Düsseldorf.

Now, all of this sounds like a vision that is often dismissed as unrealistic, crazy nonsense, a fever dream of left-green-ideologized people. Is that so? Or wouldn't we simply be happy to live in such an environment, to enjoy it, because we would prefer to spend our free time on a bench in an urban green space rather than on a congested city street with stressed drivers? Now everyone will come who explains that such a thing is not possible, that it's all utopian, not feasible in reality. And then two people in Düsseldorf have the idea of a bicycle trade fair. And they just do it. And within a few years, this fair becomes an internationally significant flagship for a city that wasn't exactly known for its great cycling culture before. Fun Fact: When we started Mütze, we were asked why we didn't open the shop in Cologne, where it would fit better, where there's a cycling scene.

We cannot turn back time, but we can shape the future. There are cities that have gone before us and are successful. Watch "Cycling Cities" by Ingwar Perowanowitsch. Let's just enjoy the coming days when Düsseldorf is indeed a cycling capital. Let's get inspired and carried away by a trade fair that has been a driving force for local cycling culture for us since its first edition, and at the same time has put Düsseldorf on the international map of cities that are important for the bicycle industry. Cyclingworld is part of the city of Düsseldorf, not only in the Areal Böhler, but also in the city center, in front of the Schauspielhaus. Let's hope that more people will be inspired by visions and realize what is possible when you do it well, are innovative, and move forward.

We look forward to your visit at our booth. We have many guests, so this year Cicli Barco, Albion, IRIS, Ciclovation, Ingrid will be visiting us at our booth, and we also have KASK, Cyclite, wahoo, CYCLE4WATER and Orbea in our neighborhood. And we also ride bikes as part of the fair, tickets for the rides are available, if still available, here on the page under Mützenrides.

Cycling is the future. Let’s party.