The Life-Sized City Blog

The news out of Copenhagen this week is good. Apart from an arsenal of over 20 permanent sensors dedicated to counting bicycle traffic, the City of Copenhagen also performs comprehensive bi-annual counts and the latest numbers, from September, are exceptional. For the first time since the City starting counting traffic entering the city centre, there are more bikes than cars. Indeed, since last year, 35,080 more bikes were counted, bringing the total up to 265,700, as you can see on the graph, above. It is a clear indication that continuous municipal policy and investment in Best Practice infrastructure pays off. The City has gone above and beyond over the past ten years. Investing 1 billion DKK (€134 million) extra in infrastructure, facilities and, not least, bicycle bridges to prioritise cycling as transport . The City counts traffic in two places. Crossing the municipal border (into the orange from any direction on the map at left) and then entering the city centre itself...

Photo by Jaime Dieppa from Citibici.es This sign is currently positioned along the City Hall in Copenhagen. It's from the City's DoT and Bicycle Office and uses the behavourial communcation template Copenhagenize Consulting developed a few years back. It reads: " Hi, Cyclist! Soon you'll be able to ride safe and secure along the City Hall Garden on a 2.80 metre wide cycle track with a curb. " This stretch along the City Hall is one of the few stretches of main streets left that doesn't have a separated cycle track. It's been a painted lane next to a bus lane, which is next to six lanes of traffic. So now it's getting redone so it adheres to the Best Practice in the rest of the city. And that 2.80 metre width is one way, of course. There are about 20,000 cyclists - in both directions - on this artery and making it safer will encourage more to use the route.

We are in the midst of an interesting little project here at Copenhagenize Consulting . Something we've been planning for a while but only recently got started with. Like everywhere else, the ever-growing urban cycling boom is causing a backlash in Copenhagen. There's a lot of negative press about bicycle users and little happening to reverse that. When the police go out on their Viking raids for a week at a time, ticketing cyclists for trivialities, the press regurgitate all manner of hype about the 'lawlessness' that will surely cause imminent societal decay. Always forgetting to highlight the fact that The 99% ride by the book and have done for 125 years. So. We thought we'd look at an intersection - an average one - to observe behaviour and chart patterns and numbers. The Choreography of an Urban Intersection. We chose the intersection outside of our office window. Not only convenient, but also a unique intersection in that it is primarily a transport hub t...