Bicycle Parking at Train Stations in Denmark

I've been helping out John Pucher from Rutgers University with some statistics for a new book he's writing. We were looking into bicycle parking in Denmark. I found the numbers to be interesting.

The infographic above (hopefully) spells it out. Total number of parking spots at 297 Danish train stations and the number of spots reserved for bicycles and cars, including the occupancy rate of those spots.

It applies to the national rail network and the S-train network serving Greater Copenhagen. I've combined the two in the stats. There are many trains that have, not surprisingly, occupancy rate of + 100%. A town like Lystrup has a bicycle rack occupany rate of 283%; 250% in Mørke, 147% in Odense, 208% in Svendborg, 121% at Copenhagen Central Station.

The country's busiest train station - with S-trains, Metro and regional trains - is Nørreport with 102,189 passengers a day (53,004 arriving/49,185 departing). It has 996 bicycle parking spots (it's going to be renovated and will include more) and an occupancy rate of 97%.

There is no car parking at the station, nor is there at the nation's terminus, Copenhagen Central Station.

In comparison, John Pucher tells me that there are 38,280 bicycle parking spots at train and bus stations combined in the United States.

John was looking for stats not only for regular parking spots but also bike cages, bike lockers and bike stations (manned parking). We don't have any bike lockers in Denmark but there are 82 bike cages at various stations where you can lock your bike up in a secure 'cage'. There are only one or two bike stations in the country, including one a the Central Station. The idea simply hasn't caught on here. I can't see myself using one. I want quick access to my bicycle, but that's just me.

I'm looking forward to the next publication by John. Until then, he and Ralph Buehler have updated their overview article entitled, "Walking and Cycling for Healthy Cities," Built Environment, Vol. 36, No. 5, December 2010, pp. 391-414. It opens as a pdf.

Here's the abstract:

Walking and cycling are the healthiest ways to get around our cities, providing valuable physical activity for people on a daily basis. These forms of active transport also generate indirect public health benefits by reducing the use of automobiles, thus diminishing air, water, and noise pollution and the overall level of traffic danger. This paper provides a broad overview of the role walking and cycling can play in making our cities healthier. First, we summarize the scientific evidence of the health benefits of walking and cycling. Second, we examine variations in walking and cycling levels in Europe, North America, and Australia. Third, we consider the crucial issue of traffic safety. Finally, we describe a range of government policies needed to encourage more walking and cycling: safe and convenient infrastructure such as sidewalks, crosswalks, bike paths and lanes, and intersection crossings; traffic calming of residential neighborhoods; integration with public transport; land-use policies that foster compact, mixeduse developments; people-friendly urban design; improved traffic education; strict enforcement of traffic regulations; and reductions in motor vehicle speed limits.

Source for infographic: Danish Ministry of Transport

7550 New Bike Parking Spots at Copenhagen Central Station

For all of Copenhagen's badassness as a bicycle city, there remains one thing that the City still completely sucks at. Bicycle parking at train stations. At Copenhagen Central Station there are only about 1000 bike parking spots. Danish State Railways can't even tell us how many spots they have. They're not sure. Even in Basel they have 800+. In Antwerp they have this . Don't even get me started on the Dutch. 12,500 bike parking spots are on the way in some place called Utrecht . Amsterdam has a multi-story bike parking facility, floating bicycle barges round the back and are planning 7000 more spots underwater . Even at the nation's busiest train station, Nørreport, the recent and fancy redesign failed miserably in providing parking that is adequate for the demand . Architects once again failing to respond to actual urban needs. It is time to remedy that. Here is my design for 7550 bike parking spots behind Copenhagen Central Station. Steve C. Montebello i...

The New Question for 21st Century Cities

It's all so simple if we want it to be. For almost a century we have been asking the same question in our cities. "How many cars can we move down a street?" It's time to change the question. If you ask "How many PEOPLE can we move down a street?", the answer becomes much more modern and visionary. And simple. Oh, and cheaper. Let alone the fact that the model at the top can move 10 times more people down a street than the model at the bottom. When I travel with my Bicycle Urbanism by Design keynote , I often step on the toes of traffic engineers all around the world. Not all of them, however. I am always approached by engineers who are grateful that someone is questioning the unchanged nature of traffic engineering and the unmerited emphasis placed on it. I find it brilliant that individual traffic engineers in six different nations have all said the same thing to me: "We're problem solvers. But we're only ever asked to solve the sam...

Desire Line Analysis in Copenhagen's City Centre

Continuing in our series of Desire Line Analyses, we decided to cast our critical and curious eyes on yet another Copenhagen intersection, this time where Bremerholm meets Holmens Kanal. We decided to be more specific and focus on one part of the intersection - a location that we know well and one with a specific congestion problem in rush hour. We filmed for one hour from 08:15-09:15. Behaviour vs Design With the massive numbers of bicycle users in the mornings in Copenhagen, bottlenecks occur at a number of locations, particularly where many bicycle users need to turn left. This is something that all of us at the company experience each morning so we decided to study it. It was a November morning and it was party-cloudly, dry and 6 degrees C. The focus was to determine how bicycle users react to the sub-standard design of this location. How they react to having to battle with motorised traffic - something that is unusual in the city. Yep, even in Copenhagen, The Arroganc...

The Life-Sized City Blog

Search This Blog