How Copenhagen cornered the car: the bike is the fastest and safest way to get around the city

“I was practically born with a bike between my legs: my parents didn't have a car and I learned to ride when I was very young.

And at 66, I've never had a driver's license."

Erik Hjulmand, president of the Danish Cycling Federation - the largest in the country - proclaims his love for two wheels on an iconic bridge in Copenhagen where cyclists never stop passing.

His words define the spirit of a city with more bicycles (745,000) than inhabitants (600,000) full of protected lanes where everything is done by bike, from taking the children to school to ordering a menu on two wheels.

You can even order a bicycle funeral!

The city, visited every year by mayors and councilors from all over the world to try to copy its model,

According to municipal data, 62% of the inhabitants cycle several times a week.

And that can be seen on any city street: women, men, children, grandparents... ride bikes in street clothes and also in elegant clothes.

A very different image from the cities without bike lanes, where only young men are usually seen in sportswear.

More figures: in 2021, 35% of citizens went to work or school by bicycle every day, although before the pandemic there were many more: in 2019 they exceeded 44%.

Something similar has happened with total trips (which include shopping, walks and others): in 2021, 21% were by bicycle, 10 points less than in the pre-pandemic year.

A municipal spokesman attributes this drop to teleworking and distance education, which have made walking trips take off.

A woman pedals across one of Copenhagen's bicycle and pedestrian bridges on July 20. picture alliance (dpa/picture alliance via Getty I)

Several cyclists wait at a red light on the cycle highway that crosses the Queen Louise Bridge, the busiest by bicycles in Copenhagen.MAM

Bicycles parked on a street in the Danish capital.picture alliance (dpa/picture alliance via Getty I)

Cyclist parking inside a shopping center in the Danish capital.MAM

A bike lane almost ten meters wide, one of the widest in the Danish city.MAM

Pelle Kirkeloy works as a mechanic at Ladycyklen, a cargo bike shop in the Danish capital.MAM

Bededamerne, a bicycle funeral service in Copenhagen.

bededamerne.dk

Jesús, Laura, Hugo and Luis, a family that uses the cargo bike to take the children.MAM

Mikael Colville-Andersen, creator of Copenhagenize, pictured with his bic.MAM

Huge two-story-high cycle parking next to Copenhagen Central Station.MAM

Thomas Krag, mobility advisor and spokesperson for the Danish Cycling Embassy, ​​an institution that tries to export Danish cycling culture to other countries.MAM

Erik Hjulmand, spokesman for the Danish Cycling Federation, the largest cycling association in the country.MAM

Andreas Rohl, mobility expert at the studio of urban planner Jan Gehl.MAM

From left to right, Silvia, her daughter Samira and Fernando, three Argentine tourists, look at the Marble Church during a bike tour of Copenhagen.MAM

What is the secret?

“The main thing is to create bike lanes on important streets, something that the city began to do seriously in the 1980s, and from there develop a coherent network throughout the city.

You cannot make cycling something for everyone without building separate spaces where everyone feels safe,” says Andreas Rohl, who was in charge of municipal cycling policy for eight years (2006-2014).

"This does not require a lot of money, because these infrastructures are cheap, but there is political will to take space away from the car."

In his mandate, he was in charge of not redesigning an inch of the city without thinking about the bicycle.

“Also, when it snows, the bike lanes are the first thing to be cleaned.

And the traffic lights are regulated so that those who pedal at a constant speed find them always green”, he assures.

He now works as a mobility expert in the studio of Jan Gehl, the great Danish urban planner who champions cities on a human scale.

One of the cycle bridges in the Danish capital.picture alliance (dpa/picture alliance via Getty I)

Hjulmand shows infrastructures that make getting around by bike easy: "Several bridges for cyclists and pedestrians have been built in recent years and all have been successful."

One of them, which links the island of Amagor -an old industrial area where there are now houses- with the main area of ​​the capital, then continues towards the Snake Bridge, a surprising and winding route only for velocipedes that has already become in a cycling emblem.

Meanwhile, the Reina Luisa bridge, which once had four lanes for cars, was remodeled, leaving only two lanes for traffic and instead building a bicycle highway that now carries 50,000 cyclists a day.

A bike lane almost 10 meters wide in Copenhagen.MAM

Cycle lanes?

"These are very wide bike lanes that link the center with the outskirts and along which people can pedal without obstacles and with safe intersections," says Thomas Krag, from the Danish Cycling Embassy, ​​an organization that tries to export the Copenhagen model to the rest of the world. rest of the world.

It marks the route of one of these highways: it is wide, it has a huge red C (for

) marked on the ground, and a platform so that, when the traffic light is red, cyclists can lean on it without stepping on the ground.

There are 60 kilometers of these routes through the capital, in addition to about 420 kilometers of bike lanes and another 65 of routes through parks (for comparison, Madrid has about 260 in total for a population almost five times larger).

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There are also parking lots for velocipedes everywhere, from small ones on the corners to giant ones next to train stations or public transport stops.

There you can see thousands of Danish bikes —which usually have only three gears and pedal straight— anchored only by the rear wheel, where they have a built-in lock.

If one is abandoned, the municipal staff puts a blue sticker on it;

if the owner does not remove that sticker in two weeks, the City Council sends a tow truck and takes it away.

Double-deck bicycle parking next to Copenhagen Central Station.

MAM

“All this means that the bicycle is the fastest way to get from one point to another in the city, so people simply use it because it is the most practical”, summarizes Mikael Colville-Andersen, an expert in cycling mobility.

“Transportation engineers have spent many years thinking about how many cars can drive down a street.

But the question is how many people can move, not how many cars.

And in that sense, bike lanes are tremendously effective, because they can move a lot more people in a lot less space,” he continues.

And he points out that the municipal government has invested 286 million euros in a decade (2006-2017) to build bike lanes, bridges and other cycling infrastructure.

“It is the same as it has cost us an extension of only three kilometers of a motorway”.

Mikael Colville-Andersen, creator of Copenhagenize, in the Danish capital with his bicycle.

MAM

Colville-Andersen became known after creating Copenhagenize (something like

), a mobility consultancy that seeks to promote cycling urbanism.

The website publishes every two years the most recognized classification of cyclable cities in the world, which evaluates infrastructures, route conditions, design proposals and other factors.

Of course, the Danish capital always occupies the first places (in the last one, in 2019, it was first).

The expert disassociated himself from the initiative just before the pandemic, but the project continues.

“This bike is our car”

Jesús del Pozo (41 years old) and Laura Priisholm (35), he Spanish, she Danish, show what the cycling culture of the city translates into.

“This bike is our car,” Jesús says as he rides his two sons, Hugo (three years old) and Luis (one year old), on the front of a tricycle.

These types of cargo velocipedes are very popular (there are about 50,000 throughout the city) and many parents choose to take their children to school in this way.

"Here it is very normal to leave the children on the bike while you go into a store or do a short procedure," says the man from Madrid.

Later, he arrives at the nursery school where Hugo stays.

Sometimes he leaves the tricycle parked there and takes his bike to get to his job at City Hall, and other times he continues directly with this electric tricycle.

And when we do the shopping,

the child seat can be used as a luggage compartment.

It works for everything," he adds.

Jesús del Pozo and Laura Priisholm, together with their sons Luis (left) and Hugo, on the cargo bike they use to take the children to school.

MAM

The streets of the capital are full of electric tricycles.

They are also used for all kinds of businesses: electricians, painters, masons, mechanics... Even blood bags for analysis are moved in these vehicles.

“We sell more and more bikes of this type, because they don't use gasoline and they never get stuck.

You know exactly what time you arrive and you can park at the door”, summarizes Pelle Kikerby in Ladycyklen, a huge store that only sells cargo bikes.

“Most of them are bought by families to take their children to school, and children also have a lot of fun riding them and have loved cycling since they were little,” she continues.

Cykelkokken chef Morten Kryger Wulff feeds several customers with his bicycle, which includes a portable kitchen.

In this spirit, Morten Kryger set up Cykelkokken (bicycle chef) two decades ago, a mobile restaurant that tours the capital for about four and a half hours, stopping at different places, cooking and serving various dishes of local cuisine and ecological (with fish and vegetables).

“The people who sign up try an exquisite meal, but they also change places six or seven times, and try as many other dishes.

When food is served in a place in the city something magical happens, another way to explore the city.

For me, it's a disruptive experience," says Kryger as he shows off the bike, designed by him and weighing about 100 kilos when loaded with food.

Stopping, he uncovers a large stove and fridge, as well as various drawers, the sides of which open to form a table.

Even more surprising is Bededamerne (a play on words between women who pray and gravediggers), a funeral home in the capital that allows the last wish of the most passionate cyclists to be fulfilled: that their coffin ride towards the cemetery on a bicycle.

The images of the burials that have already been carried out show that there is nothing that cannot be carried by bike in this city.

Funeral service by bicycle of the Bededamerne company.

bededamerne.dk

Anyone who visits Copenhagen can tour it by bicycle.

abound

bike tours, in English and Spanish.

One of those that can be done in the latter language is Civitatis (40 euros, includes the bike), followed by Fernando, Silvia and their daughter Samira, an Argentine family that has opted for this option to see many places in just three hours. : the Round Tower, the picturesque neighborhood of Nyborder, the palaces of Christiansborg and Amalienborg, the colorful Nyhavn canal -the most photographed in the city-, the Rosenborg castle and, of course, the iconic statue of the Little Mermaid.

"It's the best way to see many things in a short time," says Fernando.

If the tourist goes in summer, it is a good option to eat in open-air markets such as Broens Gadekøkken, with food stalls from all over the world;

the Meatpacking District, where roast beef at the Mikkeler Brewery is not to be missed;

, a rye toast covered in delicacies.

The city has made the flag of its cycling policy, and every year hundreds of mayors, councilors and municipal technicians visit it to imbue itself with its spirit and get ideas, as Thomas Krag confirms.

“The Danish Cycling Embassy tries to export ideas and knowledge about Copenhagen's cycling urbanism to the whole world,” he says.

María Elisa Ojeda, a mobility consultant in Barcelona, ​​points out that they are preparing a trip to the city for September with twenty municipal technicians from the Catalan capital's metropolitan area.

From left to right, Silvia, Samira and Fernando look at the Marble Church during a bike tour of Copenhagen.MAM

The Tour de France, the most important cycling race, has recognized the importance of Copenhagen in its recent edition, which has also won a Dane.

"Of course the departure of the Tour from Copenhagen has a lot to do with the city - like all of Denmark - being a bike-friendly city," says a spokesman for the race.

“It is the ideal place to promote the link between everyday bikes and sports bikes.

In Copenhagen there are more bikes than inhabitants.

It is the city that gives more space to the bicycle on a daily basis”, he continues.

Line Barfod, Councilor for the Environment of the capital, recognized that the start of the French event meant "celebrating the unique cycling culture of the city with the rest of the world".

The initial time trial started from Copenhagen on July 1 with an urban route of 13 kilometers, and on the 2nd the City Council left the route open and without traffic so that residents could do it by bike, thus uniting sport and daily life.

The next day, after the pomp and circumstance of the great race, the decorations were dismantled, but the bike lanes were still there.

Because in Copenhagen the bike is celebrated every day.

When Copenhagen wasn't Copenhagen either

The love of the Danish capital with the bicycle began at the beginning of the 20th century, when it became popular as a means of transport.

There are images of cyclists on the streets of Copenhagen back in 1920. However, after World War II, cars spread throughout Europe and the city was no exception: during the 50s and 60s, cars cornered pedalers and their number dropped a lot.

In those years, Copenhagen did not look like Copenhagen.

But the oil crisis of 1973, the emergence of the environmentalist spirit and the high accident rate prompted large demonstrations to ask for the return to the bicycle;

the one held in 1979 brought together tens of thousands of people.

The municipal authorities heard that cry and, since the 1980s, they took the construction of safe and secure bike lanes seriously. 

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