Is Cotti perhaps one of the most intense urban focal points in Berlin? Today I’ll take you through the hot spot of our bicycle speed journey across the city. Cotbus a tour gets its name from the city gate that connected Berlin to Copus. Today this busy node is an amalgamation of different modes of transport, journeys, and life all converging here. The original layout looked quite different, evolving from a junction of 19th century residential blocks to a traffic circle due to wartime damage and demolition for urban renewal. Having both the elevated rail line and later the u a passing through here, the intersection became a multi-level interchange. A new station was built around 100 m west of the old site and the original elevated platform was demolished. Onwards to the next station, the Rabban runs centrally under the protection of the railway vioaduct and along Scallettra. So you get a more clear literal vision for the quality of the whole track. The idea of this test site is not so much to present a 100% finished solution, but rather to open up the space for people to inhabit and imagine. I must say though that there is no direct connection on and off the existing bike infrastructure. So you really have to go out of your way to use it. Perhaps if there was a safe and convenient intersection that joins on and off to the existing bike lane, I would be more likely to experiment and take that path every day. But if you have to wait at the traffic lights for 90 seconds at each end, maybe not. But this doesn’t mean the test site is bad. The furniture could go a little more art nuvo to tie in with the design of the vioideuct, but otherwise it offers a very legible and consistent visual language for what cycling infrastructure in Berlin could look like. Now we reach Gerlet Banhof. The Uban station here is preserved in much of its original condition and it really stands out as a beautiful piece of public infrastructure. The station was formerly called Orangian Strasa and was the little brother of a now demolished regional railway terminus under the name Geritza Banhof. Thanks to the close proximity of the two stations, this was once a lively hub where trade and travelers constantly cross paths. We now slightly head north and start to get a feel for the spree. So, make sure to follow along for what will be the final video in this series. See you next time.
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