Bicycle culture in Denmark

In Europe the bicycle for some odd reasons is more popular in the northern countries where it is freezing cold most of the year than in warm climate countries, down south. It has certainly something to do with the flatness of the land in the northern part of Europe, but this cannot explain it all. It has much more to do with culture, habits and customs. Denmark is no exception. In particular in Copenhagen the bicycle is incredibly popular ... even in winter time.

The City of Copenhagen has fostered and promoted the cycling culture over the years with extraordinary foresight and effort. The cycling culture goes a long way in Danish history and it will play an even more important role in the future. In 1995 Copenhagen was the first city in the world to introduce a modern, public and free bike-share system: the City Bike. While 55% of Copenhageners use a bike at least once a day for varied purposes, 37% of the population choose to bike regularly and everyday from home to their place of work or educational institution. This data prompted the City of Copenhagen in 2007 to allocate 33 million dollars over a four-year period to improve conditions for cyclists which include broader, safer, greener and better-connected bicycle routes.

By 2009 this strategy has been proven so successful that it has been necessary to launch a series of competitions for 7 new bridges (of which only one also for cars) over and around the harbour, plus a competition to update the design of the City Bike to new standards of sustainability, comfort and way of use.

The new bridges, which follow the success and the idea behind Bryggebroen, will reshape the city traffic flow completely and fill the gaps in the current network over and around the central harbour. While only one is currently being built, the construction of all of them is planned to be concluded by 2015.

Because of the massive bike use, people have adapted their bikes to more than just their own transportation: cargo bikes (both freight bicycles and cargo trailers) to transport either goods or passengers (children in particular) have become very popular. In 2008 6% of all Copenhagen households had a cargo bike. Of these 22% use their cargo bike as a car replacement.

The network of bicycle links and promenades in the city has become a crucial part within the greening city strategy which includes a drastic reduction in CO2 emissions. Cyclists already contribute to holding down CO2 emissions from traffic and the goal by 2015 is to increase the number of regular and daily cyclist to 50%. This will reduce CO2 emissions by a further 80000 tonnes per year in traffic.

References

1. In 2008 the British magazine "Monocle" declared Copenhagen number one in the list of "The World's Top 25 Most Liveable Cities". Before and after that date Copenhagen has always held a spot among the top three.

2. Source: Eco-Metropole: Our Vision for Copenhagen 2015, 2007, Copenhagen

3. Source: Copenhagen City of Cyclists: Bicycle Account 2008, 2008, Copenhagen

Links
Copenhagenize - bicycle culture in Cph
Bycyklen
Study: Cycle like the Danes and cut emissions, article on Cph Post