In the news today: bikes outnumber cars for the first time in Copenhagen
In Copenhagen, which I had to pleasure of visiting in May, the balance has finally tipped so that more bicycles (265,700) have been counted than cars (252,600) in the city centre. The figures are a daily number, though it’s not clear whether this is a yearly, monthly, or other average.
Key Facts:
City: Copenhagen
Population: 600,000
Investment in cycling infrastructure: £115m (1bn DKK) since 2005
Note-worthy idea:
Kabell believes the challenge now is to build infrastructure to keep up with the growing number of people; alongside the metro expansion, his department is working to increase the the cycle network’s capacity and efficiency. Last month, Copenhageners were invited to identify areas where bike lanes are either missing, too narrow, or heavily congested. In just 12 days more than 10,000 people shared their views on an online map. While many suggestions were expected, such as improving signal times, some were surprising: major routes, like Nørrebrogade, one of the world’s widest and busiest tracks, were marked as “too narrow”.
The data will be used to develop a Cycle Track Priority Plan for 2017-2025, which will identify where it’s most necessary to build, widen or optimise intersections. This will then form the basis of plans to be put forward for annual budget negotiations.
