Visitors to Copenhagen tend to notice that it is tough to take a photograph without a cyclist or bicycle in it. Cyclists seem to be everywhere, and statistics bear out the impression — 55 per cent of Copenhagers use bicycles each day and 41 per cent of people arrive to work or school by bike in the Danish capital.
On a visit to Denmark this month, I started to notice who was actually doing the cycling as much as their sheer numbers — old, middle-aged and young people, families with children, women in high heels, people doing chores, people just getting around; every possible segment of society seemed to travel by bike, not just Spandex-clad males.
As a parent, what surprised me were the many mothers and fathers in the downtown core with children on their bikes. At home in Victoria, I bike on quiet residential streets with my four-year old on the back in his carrier. However, I never venture downtown with him on my bike. In my judgment as a parent, neither the core of our city or the roads that lead to it are safe enough for me to travel by bicycle with my son.
Yet in Copenhagen, a much larger and more bustling city than Victoria, families ventured into the busy core at all hours with children.
I rented a three-speed cruiser at my hotel and set forth to find out why.
After a few hours biking around Copenhagen, I had several clear impressions. Foremost, during the entire time I biked around town, I never once felt like I was running a gauntlet of death between parked cars on one side and speeding traffic on the other. Almost every route physically separated bikes and cars with a dedicated cycle track.
In some areas, this was a bike lane on raised pavement. In others, simply but ingeniously, parked cars rather than people were the ones in the road nearest the traffic. This let bikers and pedestrians use the calm, safe space between parked cars and buildings.
In places without physical barriers between cyclists and car traffic, thick lines painted on the pavement and wide cycle tracks kept cars at a distance, and all intersections were marked to prioritize cyclists.
In a word, I felt safe.
I also didn’t need to think much to bike. It was clear where I had to go because cycle routes were clearly delineated. It was clear when I had to go or stop because there were usually stoplights just for bicycles. And, it was clear where I could park or rent bicycles: just about anywhere.
In short, things were designed not only for motorists but cyclists also.
My overall impression is that Copenhagen’s physical separation of bike and car routes and having fully integrated design takes the “us versus them” out of cycling. I never felt irritated by motorists because I never came near them. I assume that I never bothered motorists, for the same reason. Pedestrians, motorists and cyclists thrived side by side because the urban system was built with everyone in mind.
A recent poll bears this out; a majority of Danish motorists themselves favour more bike infrastructure, because it makes their life easier.
Above all, I understood why parents took their children into Copenhagen’s core on bikes. If Victoria had similarly modern cycling infrastructure, I would do the same here.
Happily, evidence from numerous cities suggests that substantial progress is possible within short time frames, even a single electoral cycle. Seville, Spain, went from almost no bike ridership to seven per cent of all trips being taken by bikes in fewer than five years, and Buenos Aires moved from almost no bike ridership to three per cent in only two years.
Many other cities — Barcelona, Paris, Dublin for example — have made similarly large and fast leaps. Separated bike lanes, bike-share systems and lowered speed limits were common denominators in their success.
The time is right for Victoria to make a similar leap. During the recent municipal elections, several successful council candidates supported increasing the region’s bike ridership — stubbornly languishing at three to four per cent of total trips for many years — through modern, separated infrastructure.
More broadly, Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps noted that the election represented a “reset” on business as usual in the region that will result in Victoria catching up with leading jurisdictions and realizing its potential.
Victoria could join the ranks of leading, livable cities, not through a dialogue that is about cars versus bikes, but one based on the actual evidence: that proper, modern biking (and pedestrian) infrastructure makes life better for everyone.
Roy Brooke is a resilience and sustainability consultant based in Victoria.
