Top 10 Bicycle-Friendly Design Elements in Copenhagen
Chapter 01: The big picture
your speed 20 km/h
We decided at Copehagenize design Co. to make a series of films that explore all the different elements that make Copenhagen a truly bicycle-friendly city.
Its a lot of different details involved, a lot of desing stucture details dealing with each other. but it is important to start with the big picture.
Most cities in the world are incredibly car-centric, and have hunderds of years...
...of failed traffic engineering and planning of cities based on car-centric mentality.
Planners and engineers think - cars first
and everybody else is left in the dust.
So a modern city, here, in this new millenium is a city that prioritizes differently, that focuses on
how to make the city a more livable place, safer place, healthier place
and in doing that it needs to prioritize bicycles, pedestrians and public transport
and of course, we focus on bicycle culture at Copenhagenize design Co. so
highlihting these details of what makes Copenhagen so bicycle-friendly
In thing what defines the big picture in bicycle planning in Copenhagen is
the uniformity of the bicycle network.
In Copenhagen and in Danish cities, there are four types of bicycle infrastructure:
Number one is: where you don't have an infrastructure,
you have a 30 km/h is on or slower
and so bicycles meet with cars. Share-space concept.
We do have some bi-directional infrastructure, this is largely on bicycle paths
separated form other traffic. We don't need to have many of them in Copenhagen.
Or, in between two towns up in the country, there is a bidirectional path up to the side.
Number three is painted lanes. We still have them in some places in Copenhagen
and they are of course wide enough to accomodate two cyclists riding together.
And of course, numeber four, which is the fully separated and protected cycle tracks,
and you see these all over the city. There is about 1000 km of protected cycle tracks.
In the City of Copenhagen and all the surrounding municipalities that make up the great Copenhagen.
We know, that this is the safest, whe know, that this is what makes people to want to ride a bike,
makes the feel safe and it keeps them safe as well.
When we only have four types of infrastructure,
makes it incredibly uniform, makes it incredubly easy, way-finding, it's very logical
You can take your bike on the train and go to any other Danish city
get off the train and find bicycle infrastructure that you recognize
and you know that it will take it you probably somewhere.
This uniformity in the best design of the bicycle infrastructure is really one of teh key elements
to make Copenhagen a bicycle friendly city.
The one of the things i like the best about cycling in Copenhagen is, said, for example,
a no point where I have to push the button like a lot of pedestrians do in other cities
as a cyclist, to wait for a permission to cross the street,
I think this is an indication, that bicycles are taken seriously as transport.
I am riding in Copenhagen, riding bicycle to kindergarten, to school,
to the supermarket, to work and what not, its a pleasant experience.
Even in the middle of the snow storm and a 40 deg heat in the summer,
the bicycle is the fastest way to get around the city and other cities, if you make the bicycle,
we really work hard on what makes the bicycle the fastest mode of transport from A to B.
Thats why people in Copenhagen ride.
Prioritize the bicycleand they will ride. If you build it, they will come.
I think that, maybe, what has taken 30-35 years here, slow, making mistakes, fixing the mechain
a establishing, at the end of the day, we are really a best practice in bicycle planning.
This is possible for other cities todo in 5-10 years.
with the right political will
and engineers and planners, who know how to plan for bicyles
and are willing to think bicycle first.
copenhagenize.eu