diff --git a/src/main/java/org/heigit/bigspatialdata/ohsome/ohsomeapi/Application.java b/src/main/java/org/heigit/bigspatialdata/ohsome/ohsomeapi/Application.java
index a5c0ea45..a04894ae 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/heigit/bigspatialdata/ohsome/ohsomeapi/Application.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/heigit/bigspatialdata/ohsome/ohsomeapi/Application.java
@@ -27,6 +27,9 @@
 public class Application implements ApplicationRunner {
 
   public static final String API_VERSION = "0.9";
+  public static final int DEFAULT_TIMEOUT_IN_MILLISECONDS = 100000;
+  public static final int DEFAULT_NUMBER_OF_CLUSTER_NODES = 24;
+  public static final int DEFAULT_NUMBER_OF_DATA_EXTRACTION_THREADS = 40;
 
   /** Main method to run this SpringBootApplication. */
   public static void main(String[] args) {
@@ -54,8 +57,9 @@ public static void preRun(ApplicationArguments args) throws Exception {
     boolean multithreading = true;
     boolean caching = false;
     String dbPrefix = null;
-    long timeoutInMilliseconds = 100000;
-    int numberOfClusterNodes = 24;
+    long timeoutInMilliseconds = DEFAULT_TIMEOUT_IN_MILLISECONDS;
+    int numberOfClusterNodes = DEFAULT_NUMBER_OF_CLUSTER_NODES;
+    int numberOfDataExtractionThreads = DEFAULT_NUMBER_OF_DATA_EXTRACTION_THREADS;
     // only used when tests are executed directly in Eclipse
     if (System.getProperty(dbProperty) != null) {
       DbConnData.db = new OSHDBH2(System.getProperty(dbProperty));
@@ -107,10 +111,13 @@ public static void preRun(ApplicationArguments args) throws Exception {
             dbPrefix = args.getOptionValues(paramName).get(0);
             break;
           case "database.timeout":
-            timeoutInMilliseconds = Long.valueOf(args.getOptionValues(paramName).get(0));
+            timeoutInMilliseconds = Long.parseLong(args.getOptionValues(paramName).get(0));
             break;
           case "cluster.servernodes.count":
-            numberOfClusterNodes = Integer.valueOf(args.getOptionValues(paramName).get(0));
+            numberOfClusterNodes = Integer.parseInt(args.getOptionValues(paramName).get(0));
+            break;
+          case "cluster.dataextraction.threadcount":
+            numberOfDataExtractionThreads = Integer.parseInt(args.getOptionValues(paramName).get(0));
             break;
           default:
             break;
@@ -124,6 +131,7 @@ public static void preRun(ApplicationArguments args) throws Exception {
       ProcessingData.setTimeout(timeoutInMilliseconds / 1000.0);
       DbConnData.db.timeoutInMilliseconds(timeoutInMilliseconds);
       ProcessingData.setNumberOfClusterNodes(numberOfClusterNodes);
+      ProcessingData.setNumberOfDataExtractionThreads(numberOfDataExtractionThreads);
       if (DbConnData.db instanceof OSHDBJdbc) {
         DbConnData.db = ((OSHDBJdbc) DbConnData.db).multithreading(multithreading);
       }
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/heigit/bigspatialdata/ohsome/ohsomeapi/executor/ExecutionUtils.java b/src/main/java/org/heigit/bigspatialdata/ohsome/ohsomeapi/executor/ExecutionUtils.java
index 3e2ef054..185b3e42 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/heigit/bigspatialdata/ohsome/ohsomeapi/executor/ExecutionUtils.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/heigit/bigspatialdata/ohsome/ohsomeapi/executor/ExecutionUtils.java
@@ -89,8 +89,6 @@
 
 /** Holds helper methods that are used by the executor classes. */
 public class ExecutionUtils {
-  private static ForkJoinPool dataExtractionForkJoinPool = new ForkJoinPool(80);
-
   private AtomicReference<Boolean> isFirst;
   private final ProcessingData processingData;
   private final DecimalFormat ratioDf = defineDecimalFormat("#.######");
@@ -1076,7 +1074,7 @@ private void writeStreamResponse(
       ThreadLocal<JsonGenerator> outputJsonGen, Stream<org.wololo.geojson.Feature> stream,
       ThreadLocal<ByteArrayOutputStream> outputBuffers, final ServletOutputStream outputStream)
   throws ExecutionException, InterruptedException {
-    dataExtractionForkJoinPool.submit(() ->
+    ProcessingData.getDataExtractionThreadPool().submit(() ->
         stream.map(data -> {
           try {
             outputBuffers.get().reset();
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/heigit/bigspatialdata/ohsome/ohsomeapi/inputprocessing/ProcessingData.java b/src/main/java/org/heigit/bigspatialdata/ohsome/ohsomeapi/inputprocessing/ProcessingData.java
index e4c0581d..c133a803 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/heigit/bigspatialdata/ohsome/ohsomeapi/inputprocessing/ProcessingData.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/heigit/bigspatialdata/ohsome/ohsomeapi/inputprocessing/ProcessingData.java
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.EnumSet;
 import java.util.Set;
+import java.util.concurrent.ForkJoinPool;
 import org.geojson.GeoJsonObject;
 import org.heigit.bigspatialdata.ohsome.ohsomeapi.executor.RequestParameters;
 import org.heigit.bigspatialdata.oshdb.osm.OSMType;
@@ -13,6 +14,7 @@ public class ProcessingData {
 
   private static Geometry dataPolyGeom;
   private static double timeout;
+  private static ForkJoinPool dataExtractionForkJoinPool = new ForkJoinPool();
   private RequestParameters requestParameters;
   private String requestUrl;
   private BoundaryType boundaryType;
@@ -166,6 +168,15 @@ public static int getNumberOfClusterNodes() {
   public static void setNumberOfClusterNodes(int numberOfClusterNodes) {
     ProcessingData.numberOfClusterNodes = numberOfClusterNodes;
   }
+
+  public static void setNumberOfDataExtractionThreads(int numberOfDataExtractionsThreads) {
+    dataExtractionForkJoinPool.shutdown();
+    dataExtractionForkJoinPool = new ForkJoinPool(numberOfDataExtractionsThreads);
+  }
+
+  public static ForkJoinPool getDataExtractionThreadPool() {
+    return dataExtractionForkJoinPool;
+  }
   
   public boolean isShareRatio() {
     return isShareRatio;