The Copenhagen City Council produces a Bike Audit every couple of years in order to track bicycle usage in the city and plan more bike lanes and other infrastructure.
When they compare the 2006 Audit [Cykelregnskab 2006] with the one from 2004 it shows that the average amount of kilometres the average Copenhagener rides is unchanged. 1.2 million km each day.
Around 50% of cyclists ride up to 50 km each week. Then there is a group of 15% who ride more than 100 km each week.
The numbers for cyclists who ride up to 30 km each week show some interesting results:
34% ride up to 30 km a week to work.
68% ride up to 30 km a week on non-work related errands.
17% ride up to 30 km a week for recreation.
The latter means that 73% use their bikes for non-recreative usage. It is a means of transport, first and foremost, and not a conscious fitness-related vechicle.
That cycling is a good form of exercise, however, is the most important reason for riding for 19% of Copenhageners.
Another 38% mention excercise as one of the reasons.
In comparison, 51% of people say they ride because it is easiest and 45% say they ride because it is fastest.
In 2006, 36% of Copenhageners rode to work. The goal in the City's Cycle Policy is that 50% of the citizens will ride to work and educational institutions. The goal was previously 40% but has now been raised.
The City cites that improved infrastructure, including better controlled bike parking facilities are necessary if the magic 50% goal is to be reached.
Source: Copenhagen City Council's Cykelregnskab 2006
One of the main focuses of this blog has always been on how Copenhagen and other cities have succeeded in increasing cycling levels by approaching the subject using mainstream marketing techniques. Tried and tested marketing that has existed since homo sapiens first started selling or trading stuff to each other. Modern bicycle advocacy, by and large, is flawed. It is firmly inspired by environmentalism which, in turn, is the greatest marketing flop in the history of humankind. Four decades of sub-cultural finger-wagging, guilt trips and preaching have given few results among the general population. When sub-cultural groups start trying to indoctrinate and convert the public, it rarely ever succeeds. For the better part of a century, people all over the planet rode bicycles because they were quick, easy, convenient and enjoyable. In hilly cities. In hot cities. In snowy cities. After the bicycle largely disappeared from the urban landscape because urban planning s...