Any visit to Denmark’s capital will tell you one thing about the locals: they have a passion for cycling.

During a stroll down almost any street in Copenhagen (especially during busy commuter hours), you’ll be greeted with streams of cyclists shooting past. In fact, for tourists coming from cultures where cycling isn’t a big focus, it can take some time to get used to checking the bike lanes before you step out into the street. Many’s the time I was greeted by angry bike bells during my first few weeks in Denmark!

But how did this cycling-mad culture come about in the first place? How did Copenhagen become a cycling city? That’s what I’m going to tackle in this article.

Tour de Copenhagen

Let’s start by stating one thing. Creating a ‘cycling city’ is more than just building loads and loads of bike lanes. Although it definitely helps!
The Danish capital boasts over 400 kilometres of bike lanes and many European cities are now looking to Copenhagen as a shining example of how to create a culture where green transport is at the centre of travel, especially in dense urban spaces. This explains the main reason for Copenhagen’s selection as the start for the Tour de France in 2022.

In recent years, as pollution and congestion in overcrowded European capitals rise, many nations have made concerted efforts to encourage a cycling-focused culture among their population. But the sculpting of Copenhagen’s passion for cycling and the bike-culture goes way back, so they have some catching up to do! Let’s step back in time…

‘Copenhagenising’ the inner-city

Yes I’m not sure about that word either, but according to this definition, the word Copenhagenising is:

And walking (or cycling!) through the streets of Copenhagen will show you that this is indeed the case. Copenhagenising hasn’t just focused on adding loads of bike lanes to existing roads, but has actively prioritised cycling over cars.

It’s an intentional action which cannot be performed overnight, meaning the results of mass cycling we are now seeing across the Danish capital were seeds planted across all of Denmark a long time ago.

Building the Danish cycle culture

During the first half of the 20th century, Danish cities became cities of bicycles. The aim was to encourage people from all social classes to adopt the bicycle as their main means of transport, including within professions like postmen, delivery couriers and home helpers. Bernhardt Jensen, the so-called ‘cycling mayor’ of Aarhus from 1958-71 was influential in encouraging people to adopt the bicycle, adding kilometres of bike lanes across the rapidly expanding city.

However, as I talked about in my guide to Aarhus, it wasn’t always an easy ride towards the cycling culture we see in Denmark today. The global rise in ownership of automobiles and motorbikes in the 1950s and 1960s led many Danish urban planners to prioritise the car, widening highways, buiding more roads, pushing pedestrain walkways underground and even covering beautiful rivers - as happened in Aarhus.

It was in the 1970s that the bicycle stepped into the spotlight again. The oil crisis in the Middle East and rising congestion in major Danish cities led to widespread protests amid calls for Copenhagen to be made car free. As a result, councils put in place factors like ‘Car Free Sundays’ and major inner-city streets like Strøget in Copenhagen became pedestrian only.

Towards the end of the 20th century, growing awareness around air pollution in urban areas, fossil fuels’ impact on climate change and the growing need for exercise in sedentary, desk-based office jobs has seen bicyle usage in Copenhagen rise steeply. This rise has been encouraged by the Danish government’s high taxes on petrol and car ownership.

This trend has continued into the 21st century, with the Danish government putting in place the infrastructure for cycling to become an important part of the culture. In the last 15 years alone, the Copenhagen authorities have spent over €100 million on projects aimed at helping encourage bike travel, including 12 "motorways" built entirely for cyclists and five dedicated cycle bridges (mentioned below).

This was done in part to help meet their optimistic (but now seemingly achievable) goal of becoming 'the world's best bicycle city by 2025'. The benefits of achieving this goal are threefold, divided into:

• being an integral contribution towards the city's health plan.

• contributing towards Copenhagen’s environmental goal of making the city CO2 neutral by 2025.

• enhancing the overall livability of the city.

Building the cycle culture through effective planning & infrastructure

Planning is now an integrated feature of urban development and urban governance in Copenhagen. In the 21st century city plans dealing specifically with cycling include:

• the Copenhagen Cycle Policy (2002-2012)

• the Copenhagen Transport and Environment Plan 2004

• Copenhagen Bicycle Strategy (2011-2025)

• the Copenhagen Cycle Priority Plan (2006-2016)

The Bicycle Strategy specifies targets, in particular the key goal of increasing the number of daily bicycle trips in Copenhagen to 240,000 by 2025, from a baseline of 110,000 in 1970 and 150,000 in 2015.

The cycling infrastructure in Copenhagen is extensive, and enhances the safety and enjoyability of cycling considerably. It includes:

• a network of bike paths that are segregated from both pedestrians and vehicle traffic.

• dedicated bicycle traffic lights that allow for cyclists to leave intersections before cars.

• separately coloured bike paths where cars and bikes share road space.

• ongoing commitments to create new bike paths and expand existing ones, especially along major commuter routes through the city centre.

This cycling infrastructure has tried to incorporate Danish design principles into its implementation, with a focus on simplicity and ease of use. They have divided this this cycling infrastructure in Copenhagen into four types:

1. Traffic calmed streets

2. Painted bike lanes

3. Separated cycle tracks

4. Green routes to get you where you need.

Safe Infrastructure

Crucial to encouraging an uptake in cycling is making people feel safe. The measures outlined above not only help cyclists get around quickly, but they encourage motorists in cars, motorbikes and trucks to pay attention to cyclists.

It’s this fact that encourages people across Copenhagen to hop on their bike each morning. They feel safe.

source: Visit Copenhagen

The addition of bike ‘furniture’

One seemingly insignificant part of the Copenhagen bike culture which I value immensely on my commute is the bicycle railing. These metal railings with a leaning pole for the arm and a rest for the leg are positioned at crossings and busy intersections throughout the city.

It’s an ingenious piece of city ‘furniture’ as the messages written on the railings encourage and thank cyclists for their use of the bike, making them feel appreciated while they rest at the lights. It also provides a useful starting block to push off from and gain momentum once the lights change to green.

From the urban planner’s perspective though it also serves some additional purpose. The majority of accidents involving cyclists happen at busy insections like this, most often involving impatient cyclists or cars who think they can skip the queue and jump ahead. With these railings placed at red lights:

• A cyclist is less likely to become impatient while resting

• A formal order is established with a queue beginning from the railing

• It’s far less likely that cyclists behind them will opt to break the rules in front of someone patiently waiting.

So intelligent design like this is making potentially dangerous situations for cyclists far more predictable and, therefore, safer.

Creating a connecting cycling infrastructure

As I mentioned above, it’s one thing to add bike lanes to the existing transport grid in a city, but more must be done to meet the ambitious goals in encouraging more journeys by bike. Copenhagen is a city split by a large stretch of water, with further small canals interlacing the old city.

Part of the infrastructure plan has therefore been to build more than a dozen dedicated pedestrian and cyclist bridges. One of these is the Quay Bridge (Bryggebroen) which was completed in 2006 to connect Havneholmen on the mainland with Islands Brygge on the island of Amager:

Experts initially estimated 3,300 daily bicycle crossings over the bridge. But within months of opening more than 9,000 were counted crossing, of which one third were former car drivers.

So the intelligent placement of a cycling-only bridge has created almost three times as many cycling trips as was expected. The Cykelslangen (Bicycle Snake) bridge (pictured above) already boasts more than 20,000 crossings each day.

Amongst the dozen new bike-focused bridges built since the start of the last century is Olafur Eliasson’s Circle Bridge (Cirkelbroen), which gives spectacular views across the water to the National Library of Denmark’s Black Diamond.

The benefits of making Copenhagen a cycling city

So once the money had been spent and the infastructure put in place, what were the actual benefits we see of making Copenhagen a cycling city?

Such extreme spending and long-term planning must surely bring considerable benefits to the city’s inhabitants, and not just a means of building an international reputation as a ‘green’ city? Let’s find out.

And in Copenhagen, that figure rises even higher, with almost 50% of the workforce (including myself) commuting via bike on a daily basis across the capital’s 400+ kilometres of bike lanes. That’s about 150,000 people cycling each day to work or educational institutions, equal to about 36% of all trips. 

They aren’t stopping there though. With the centre being transformed into a cyclist’s paradise, Copenhagen’s plan for achieving a greater modal share for bicycles includes increasing the capacity of the cycle tracks leading into the city centre, in order to accommodate an additional 60,000 cyclists by 2025.

• Cyclists reduce CO2 emissions by 20,000 tonnes a year, on average.

• Residents who cycle in Copenhagen request 1.1 million fewer sick days.

• Every kilometre travelled by bike instead of by car means €1 (USD 1.16) gained in terms of health benefits.
  source: Denmark.dk

Aside from the myriad health benefits of a city that prioritises cycling over driving, there are significant financial benefits to the Copenhagen Kommune:

It is estimated by the Copenhagen authorities that the mass commuting by bike saves one million days of work stoppage and creates more than €130 million in savings annually.

So to return to our original question there are a whole combination of factors which led to Copenhagen becoming a cycling city. From high taxes on car ownership to effective and intelligently designed infrastructure, the Danish authorities have (in my opinion!) done an amazing job in building a culture which prioritises the bicycle over the car.

Although they haven’t got there yet, if the last 20 years results are anything to go by, they will be very close to achieving their cycling goals for 2025.

How do you think Copenhagen became a cycling city? Do you have experience with cycling in and around Copenhagen and Denmark? Let me know in the comments below!