Bicycles go hand-in-hand with trains, and are the perfect 'last-mile transport solution'. When cities are made bicycle friendly with protected lanes, bikeshare systems, and lots of bike parking, many people will ride. Proof is all over the world, including a number of American cities such as New York, Washington DC, Portland, San Francisco, etc.
In the same amount of space, Copenhagen bikeways carry 7 times more people per hour than LA Freeways!
HIGHWAYS
VS.
BICYCLES
Rush Hour
1 lane of pavement
Bikeway (same width as one lane)
400 people per hour
3,000 people per hour
(at 8 miles per hour)
(at 10 miles per hour)
Click both videos at the same time for side-by-side comparison
COPENHAGEN WELCOMES BICYCLES BY PLANNING FOR THEM...
STEP 1 - REMOVE THE CARS, PEDESTRIANIZE THE CENTER...
STEP 2 - CREATE PROTECTED BIKE LANE NETWORK THROUGHOUT THE CITY...
Citywide and continuous protected bike infrastructure enables very high daily bike use. In Copenhagen, bicycles have been given top priority for decades - in planning and physical allocation of space/routes in the city. The result is everyone in Copenhagen, 75% of the population cycles year round. This includes for practical reasons, for sport, for fun, casually, everything. That is 3 out of every 4 people.
This is why so many bike in Copenhagen: There are 650,000 bikes, 48,000 bike racks and 429 kilometres of cycling path, just in the municipality (Copenhagen proper).
Cycling is so prevalent in the population that:
55% of the (applicable) citizens cycle to work or school. For the record, that means there are more people cycling to work/school in JUST Copenhagen than there are people doing that in the entire USA. This one city has more bicycle commuters than a country with a population 160 times bigger.
36% of all trips to work or school are taken on a bicycle. Out of all the times people in Copenhagen have gone to school or gone to work, 36% of those times, they did so on a bike.
58% of school-aged children cycle to school, meaning that cycling, which is already a huge part of Copenhagen’s society, is going to continue to grow as cycling becomes a part of people’s lives from a very early age.
63% of the members of Parliament cycle to their job daily.
Cycling is the ideal form of local transport and people respond when invited to ride with great facilities!
NEW STUDY: HUGE HEALTH BENEFITS WITH BIKE COMMUTING
GET THE NEW DEFINITIVE GUIDEBOOK ON BICYCLE URBANISM - COPENHAGENIZE
The bicycle enjoyed a starring role in urban history over a century ago, but now it is back, stronger than ever. It is the single most important tool for improving our cities. Designing around it is the most efficient way to make our cities life-sized—to scale cities for humans. It is time to cement the bicycle firmly in the urban narrative in US and global cities.
Enter urban designer Mikael Colville-Andersen. He has worked for dozens of global cities on bicycle planning, strategy, infrastructure design, and communication. He is known around the world for his colorful personality and enthusiasm for the role of the bike in urban design. In Copenhagenize, he shows cities how to effectively and profitably re-establish the bicycle as a respected, accepted, and feasible form of transportation.
Building on his popular blog of the same name, Copenhagenize offers vivid project descriptions, engaging stories, and best practices, alongside beautiful and informative visuals to show how to make the bicycle an easy, preferred part of everyday urban life.
Copenhagenize will serve as inspiration for everyone working to get the bicycle back into our cities. It will give planners and designers the ammunition to push back against the Automobile Age and convince the skeptics of the value of the life-sized city. This is not a guide on how to become Copenhagen, but how to learn from the successes and failures (yes, failures) of Copenhagen and other cities around the world that are striving to become more livable. More info | Copenhagenize Blog | Buy book
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US HSR. Making it happen.
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