The Guardian - Big Picture: Copenhagen bikes, by Mikael Colville-Anderson
The guardian has published a great selection of Mikael Coville-Andersons pictures of people getting around their city (Copenhagen) on bikes. Shows how cycling in the city can and should be - easy, convenient, safe, door to door, stylish…
Good, Better, Best – The City of Copenhagen’s Bicycle Strategy 2011-2025 - some nice weekend reading!
A bicycle-friendly city is a city with more space, less noise, cleaner air, healthier citizens and a better economy. It’s a city that is a nicer place to be in and where individuals have a higher quality of life. Where accessibility is high and there is a short route from thought to action if one wants to head out into nature, participate in cultural or sports activities or buy locally. Bicycle traffic is therefore not a singular goal but rather an effective tool to use when creating a liveable city with space for diversity and development.
Fortunately, it pays off to invest in urban cycling. Increased cycling levels give society less congestion, fewer sick days, longer life expectancy, less wear and tear on the roads and less pollution. Cycling initiatives are also inexpensive compared with other transport investments.
Nice presentation with good images!
Picture: Gehl Architects - Ways to add quality to the design of town centres
The problems that the Betalingsring is trying to solve originate not in our city centre but in our suburbs, we need to improve the quality of the town centers that comprise Copenhagen metropolitan region ensuring they are walkable, bike-able and provide everyday amenities. We need to improve connections and accessibility between these town centers and into the centre of Copenhagen. We need broad investment in a variety of transit options from car-sharing to public transit to ensure high quality alternatives and most importantly we need to consider the suburbs and promote medium density and quality housing. We want a city that works in the center and at the edges…
.…We aim to shift the discussion from mere political grandstanding to what ought to be the key question; how do we achieve good quality of life for all Copenhageners, a question which we all need to take seriously and responsibility for achieving. Improving quality of life and making a better city for our shared future is about more than charging motorists to drive into the centre. It should be visionary, ambitious and holistic in approach…
….Just as we have made our city centre walkable, bike-able and attractive – this should be applied more widely creating towns that provide everyday amenities. In our experience with working in transit hubs in both Gothenburg and Skåne, improving the quality within 1km of the transit hubs including park and ride schemes, reliable wifi connections that support working while commuting and other initiatives that improve convenience can greatly increase the attractiveness of public transport and really affect people’s transit choices.
Cool! Cycle bus it to school!
Some lucky Dutch schoolchildren can now put their seemingly endless energy to good use, by powering their own school bus. Dutch company De Café Racer produced an eco-friendly bicycle-bus that is steered by an adult and pedaled by up to 10 children.
The bright yellow bus is designed for riders aged 4 to 12, and its stability and high visibility provide a safe, early introduction to cycle commuting in a country where bicycling is a way of life and 95 percent of teenagers bike to school at least some of the time.
The bus has a base speed of 10 miles per hour, and a motor for backup if the students are too tired to pedal or need help with hills. Other features include a music player and a canvas cover for shelter on rainy days. There’s even a bench seat where two additional children can sit back and enjoy the ride. —Kate Malongowski
Photo: Kate Malongowski/ Yes!
Helle Søholt of Gehl Architects talks about the benefits of cycling and the importance of putting people first when designing city spaces.
These people have just got it right!!
..The connectivity and the diversity of the public space network in a city is extremely important for the life quality of the people living here.
The healthy city, the attractive city, is a city that has to have the humanistic values in the centre of their decision making and that is not an easy task, it sounds very easy but you actually have to visualise people in planning and that makes people that are biking and walking as visible in planning as the people driving in cars…
Ny Tøjhusgrunden, Copenhagen
I passed through here after visiting the harbour bath at Islands Brygge. Its a huge new mixed-use quarter in the city. I was highly impressed by its people focused public spaces. They were well planted, had substantial bike parking facilities, picnic areas and playgrounds and any car parking spaces were relegated to below ground level! In light of the lack of people in them I must highlight that these pictures were taken early on a Sunday morning! When I passed through later in the morning, these spaces were actually in use! It also featured as a case study in the What makes a liveable city exhibition at DAC. Read more here.
The 91,000 sq. m. Ny Tøjhus site by the Langebro bridge in Islands Brygge has been transformed into a new quarter with mixed use. By the end of 2008, four big commercial properties and some 750 housing units had been built in a total of nine complexes separated by artificial basins and canals. The site, which is bordered by Artillerivej, Amager Boulevard, Thorshavnsgade, and Njalsgade, will serve as a new link between Islands Brygge, the University of Copenhagen’s Amager campus, and Ørestad North. A segment of the green bicycle route will also run through the area, part of the kilometres of bicycle paths that have been laid out up, down, and across the city.
Copenhagen Harbour Pool - Islands Brygge
Every since I saw this amazing place in Monocle I wanted to visit it so when I was in Copenhagen earlier this summer I seized the opportunity! It captures the whole essence of a liveable city and lived up to all my expectations…even if the water was what you might politely call bracing!
ArchDaily have a great write up on it here!
Copenhagen’s harbour is in the midst of a transformation from an industrial port and traffic junction to being the cultural and social centre of the city. The Harbour Bath has been instrumental in this evolution. It extends the adjacent park over the water by incorporating the practical needs and demands for accessibility, safety and programmatic flexibility. Rather than imitating the traditional Danish indoor swimming bath, the Harbour Bath offers an urban harbour landscape with dry-docks, piers, boat ramps, cliffs, playgrounds and pontoons. As a terraced landscape, the Harbour Bath completes the transition from land to water, making it possible for the citizens of Copenhagen to go for a swim in the middle of the city.
A cool short music video commissioned by the City of Copenhagen to showcase Copenhagens city cycling culture in the 21st century. Video was created and produced by Mikael Colville-Andersen of Copenhagenize! Come on London…get yourself organised!
Image: The Independent
An old article but still interesting reading!
Copenhagen City of Cyclists - Bicycle Account 2010 by Cycling Embassy of Denmark
A great short read for a Monday afternoon lunchbreak! Its got great facts and stats on safety, numbers cycling etc!
People are safer and feel safer in traffic
There has been a marked increase in the perceived safety from 51 % in 2008 to 67 % in 2010, thereby reversing an otherwise clear downward trend in cyclists’ sense of safety since 1996. Today only 5 % of city cyclists respond that they feel very unsafe. At the same time the level of cyclist safety is historically high: 92 seriously injured cyclists in 2010 as against 252 in 1996. This positive trend is due to an organized effort to improve safety and security in traffic. Advanced stop lines and more and wider cycle tracks have made cycling in traffic safer and more secure. However, a continued, intensified effort is necessary if we are to achieve our goal that 80 % of city cyclists shall feel safe in traffic by 2015.
Almost everybody cycles
84 % of Copenhagen residents have access to a bicycle and 68 % cycle at least once a week. Even among those who cite the car or public transport as their primary transport mode, 15 % cycle at least once a week.
As many as 50 % of Copenhagen residents who work or study in Copenhagen cycle to their workplace or educational institution.
Picture Credit: Mikael Colville-Anderson @ Copenhagenize.com
Brilliant piece on Copenhagenize.com on how Copenhagen accommodates cyclists during roadworks!
Having just returned from Copenhagen, I know this to be true! It was heartening to see how far the city goes to give its cyclists priority!
- All kerbs had little ramps to ease the transition from road to cycle path
- Where there were road works or building construction works, new temporary cycle paths were either incorporated into the works (as they are in front of Copenhagen City Hall, where the new metroline infrastructure is going in) or rerouted around the works! At no stage did a route disappear and leave you stranded!
- Cars park outside cycle routes offering protection to the cyclist, not on them as they do here!
Just found this amazing video on the Cycle Chic site! Made me feel all inspired! Copenhageners love cycling so much they even cycle in the snow!
Cool song too!
Definitely worth a weekend read! The Danish Cycling Embassy have published “Good Cities for Bicycling” an excerpt from Jan Gehl’s “Cities for People” that deals with creating good cities for cycling! It offers practical advice on what can and needs to be done to make cities fit for cycling!
Improvements to bicycle infrastructure are far cheaper and faster to implement than other infrastructural improvements and also give faster and longer payback!
In many cities, bicycle traffic continues to be not much more than political sweet talk, and bicycle infrastructure typically consists of unconnected stretches of paths here and there rather than the object of a genuine, wholehearted and useful approach. The invitation to bicycle is far from convincing. Typically in these cities only one or two percent of daily trips to the city are by bicycle, and bicycle traffic is dominated by young, athletic men on racing bikes. There is a yawning gap from that situation to a dedicated bicycle city like Copenhagen, where 37 percent of traffic to and from work or school is by bicycle. Here bicycle traffic is more sedate, bicycles are more comfortable, the majority of cyclists are women, and bicycle traffic includes all age groups from school children to senior citizens.
At a time when fossil fuel, pollution and problems with climate and health are increasingly becoming a global challenge, giving higher priority to bicycle traffic would seem like an obvious step to take. We need good cities to bike in and there are a great many cities where it would be simple and cheap to upgrade bicycle traffic.
…The cities that have successfully promoted bicycle traffic in recent decades can be tapped for good ideas and requirements for becoming a good bicycle city. Copenhagen is a compelling example of a city whose longstanding bicycle tradition came under threat from car traffic in the 1950s and 1960s. However, the oil crises in the 1970s were the catalyst for a targeted approach to inviting people to ride their bicycles more. And the message was received: today bicycles make up a considerable part of city traffic, and have helped keep vehicular traffic at an unusually low level compared to other large cities in Western Europe. The experiences from Copenhagen are used in the following to provide a platform for discussion about the good bicycle city.
