The Life-Sized City Blog

Copenhagen's famous pedestrian street "Strøget" turns 50 on September 2, 2012. There will be festivities up and down the street in celebration. Here's a post that shows the origins of the idea can be found in 1913. Originally published on 11 August 2009. I dipped into the archives the other day and found an interesting article from 1913 about traffic on the main thoroughfare in Copenhagen - ' Strøget '. In the early 1960's Strøget, the main street running east-west through the city centre, became quite famous. It was closed off to cars and transformed into a pedestrian zone. Strøget 1951 and in 1964. Strøget now. (on a very quiet morning, believe me) There were protests back then. Cries of "we're not Italians! We don't want to walk !" were heard in the city. Shopkeepers feared for their businesses. Fortunately, the idea was implemented by the City of Copenhagen. They had seen some of the great ideas by urban planner Jan Geh...

It has come to our attention that in some cities, there is resistance from the community - namely commerce - towards such things as bike lanes and bike infrastructure in general. We see it from time to time in Copenhagen, too. Back in the 1960's, a radical idea was born. Pedestrianising the city centre. There was very vocal resistance from the shops. There were even cries of " we're not Italians! We don't want to walk around the town! " The car was king. It happened anyway. The world's longest pedestrian street was born - Strøget - and others followed. Did commerce suffer? Not at all. On the contrary. Pedestrian and bicycle access without motor vechicles created the ideal shopping concept. Sales increased. It remains the case to this day, especially with the massive investment in bike infrastructure over the past 40 years, providing even more access to the city and her neighbourhoods for cyclists. Stats and Studies for use by bike advocates The ide...