We don't have cyclists in Copenhagen

... we merely have people transporting themselves by bike.

This is the overall message in the new promotion video and pamphlet ‘City of Cyclists – Copenhagen bicycle life’, released by the Copenhagen municipality to teach visitors about the city's bike use.

“If it’s monuments you’re after in Copenhagen, don’t look up. Look all around you, right there at street level. Our greatest monument is motion. It is a massive, constant, rhythmic and life-sized legacy”

In Copenhagen, cycling is a healthy and socially acceptable means of transportation that is used by nearly everyone – from the average layman to Danish ministers and mayors. The integration of the bicycle into the city’s mainstream traffic system has been a long standing tradition in Copenhagen’s urban planning policy.

The city already has 350 kilometres of cycle tracks and many more kilometres of individual cycle lanes that have been built over the course of almost a century. In the heart of the city, there are separate traffic lights for bikes and automobiles that give cyclists a green light about four seconds prior to giving the cars one. Of course, the time between the car and bicycle lights can vary and, in certain circumstances, the cyclists get a head start of up to 12 seconds. In addition to this, Copenhagen has recently started building “Green Cycle Routes,” or cyclist motorways, which will criss-cross the city, separated from the rest of the infrastructure. Accordingly, Copenhagen considers bicycle traffic as a distinct traffic category with its own needs, regulations and street areas that are just as important as those for motor and pedestrian traffic.

Every day, 37% of Copenhagen’s commuters choose to ride a bike to work or school, amounting to a total 1.2 million kilometres of daily Copenhagen cycling (about 30 times the circumference of the Earth). This also amounts to somewhere between 20.000 and 30.000 daily cyclists on the streets with the heaviest bicycle traffic. There are more bikes than inhabitants in the city and 25% of all families with two kids in Copenhagen own a cargo bike or a bicycle trailer. It is also easy to combine biking with other modes of transportation: all taxis in Copenhagen have racks for carrying up to two bikes and you can bring your bike on the metro and local trains for an extra fee of 14 kroner.

Copenhagen’s political goals for the future are to establish a safer, more accessible cycle city. Specifically, by 2015 the city aims to 1) increase the percentage of commuters that cycle to work or school to 50% of the total, 2) ensure that 80% of all cyclists in Copenhagen feel safe in traffic, and 3) reduce the number of seriously injured cyclists by 50%. 

It is through plans like these that Copenhagen promotes itself as a cyclist city to the rest of the world and, even if we as Copenhagen cyclists always wish for better conditions, make no mistakes – Copenhagen is one of two cities in Denmark where cycling is increasing instead of decreasing. So let’s continue down this path.  Cycling is physically healthy, good for our economy and an essential part of a sustainable future.