Bicyclists Paradise: Copenhagens City Center is Now Home to More Bikes Than Cars
For the first time, Copenhagen's city center now has more bikes on its streets than cars.
The Copenhagen municipality first started manual traffic counts of bikes in the city center in 1970, when there were 351,133 cars compared to 100,071 bikes, according to municipality representatives.
This years numbers show a total of 265,700 bikes, comparedto 252,600 cars, with the addition of 35,080 bikesin the last year alone.
What really helped was a very strong political leadership; that was mainly Ritt Bjerregaard, who had a dedicated and authentic interest in cycling, Klaus Bondam, head of the Danish cycling Federation, toldThe Guardian.
Cycling has become a preferredoption for some residents in the city.
People see that the fastest way to get around town is on a bicycle, Morten Kabell, mayor of technical and environmental affairs told The Guardian.
The city has been making various efforts to improveits bike culture, including the introduction of new bike and pedestrian trails, highways, and bridges, and initiatives like the bicycle strategy for 2011 to 2025, which aims to make Copenhagen carbon neutral by 2025 through improved conditions in areas that include cycling.
Its not in our genes, its not in our waterwhat weve shown the rest of the world is that if you build protected infrastructure, people will start riding their bikes, Kabellsaid.
Related Articles
