Cycling rally

Short Summary

Children bring neighbours from different cultures together.

Context

In Messestadt Riem, a relatively new district in the East of Munich, an above-average number of people have a migration background. Due to the very different cultures, there is only little contact between the neighbours. From this consideration, the idea emerged for organizing an event which allows a common experience and brings people from this area together.

Transformational Measures and Activities

The “cycling rally” is a special bike course for children to challenge and promote not only physical fitness but also mental fitness. The children participating discover by bike different stations where they have to do physical exercises or to solve a puzzle. But the rally is not a competition: all children who finish the course successfully are winners and will be awarded.

Regardless of language, nationality and religion, sport activities and puzzle-solving shall help to facilitate social integration within the neighbourhood.

Results

The idea of organizing a rally was driven by a locally involved citizen and has been successfully running in the years 2011, 2012 and 2013 with more than 2,400 children and their parents participating. Since 2017 the event is continued by the city’s marketing and communication campaign “Radlhauptstadt München”.

Challenges, opportunities and transferability

The already proven concept can be easily transferred to other neighbourhoods with similar characteristics.

In Depth

https://radlhauptstadt.muenchen.de/mitradeln/muenchner-radlrallye/ (German)