An increase in cycling mode share and cycling performance is an essential part of future transport development (Buehler and Pucher 2011; Schwanen 2015). In order to achieve the climate goals of the Federal Republic of Germany, the share of cycling must be significantly increased (BMVI 2021). An important part of this is to make cycling safe also in harsh weather conditions as seen in winter. While cycling mode shares have increased in the other seasons in recent years, a slump in cycling performance can be observed especially in winter (Nobis 2019). Studies to date have attributed this to weather conditions (temperature, precipitation) (Winters et al. 2011) and, above all, to the declining subjective feeling of safety among cyclists. Many German municipalities are therefore working on a winter service concept for cycling in order to mak.e cycling safe even in winter conditions. ... Therefore, an environmentally sound alternative for winter maintenance on segregated cycle paths that is acceptable to cyclists must be found. In many German cities but also globally, the challenge is to find a balanced solution between environmental protection and safe cycling. However, possible alternatives have to go through an approval process before they can be used. To solve those questions, we conducted several surveys which are summarized in this paper. lt consists of five sections: Section 2 highlights the wishes and demands on cycling(infrastructure) in winter from the cyclists' point of view. In section 3, the current state of winter maintenance in German cities is reviewed. Section 4 describes the selection and ecological footprint of alternative gritting materials, while section 5 describes the experiences of users in a field test. [From: Introduction]