A historic overtaking of two wheels over the car in the Danish capital. For the first time since entries into the city began being counted in the '70s, there are more bikes than cars.
Sustainable mobility — or rather, two-wheeled mobility — has won the day in Copenhagen. After years of investment, policies and infrastructure development, more bicycles than cars are now circulating in the centre of the Danish capital.
The news comes from the website Copenhagenize, which has published data on the number of vehicles entering and leaving the city, monitored daily by the city administration. The latest year saw 265,700 bicycles enter the city, compared to 252,600 cars, an increase of 35,080 two-wheelers on the previous year.
One need only look at the infographic produced by Copenhagenize: Danes prefer the bicycle or public transport for getting around the city. The website points out that cars are still being sold in Denmark, despite a 25 per cent drop in sales. But these may be second family cars, or vehicles for residents living far from the larger cities.
The citizens of Copenhagen choose the bicycle to get around: with a figure that exceeds the "quorum": 56 per cent. Then there is the 20 per cent who opt for public transport, such as buses, trains or the metro. And only 14 per cent choose to drive a car to reach their workplace or school. "Copenhagen's choice to focus on the bicycle is purely economic in nature. People came to realise that to make a city efficient you need to move people quickly from one point to another, and over urban distances of less than 8 km the bicycle proves to be the fastest means of transport," explains Paolo Pinzuti, publisher of Bikeitalia.it and cycling development manager at Bikenomist.
Investment. That is the key. Over roughly 10 years, the municipality has invested 134 million euros (more than 13 million a year) in infrastructure. Cycle lanes, car parks designed for intermodality and, above all, 17 new bridges dedicated exclusively to cycle traffic and designed to speed up journeys. So much so that cars simply cannot compete. "Public transport, too, if efficient, is fast, but it has an extremely high operating cost compared to the bicycle, and above all it does not solve the issue of the last kilometre from home to the train/metro/bus stop," concludes Pinzuti. "The bicycle is therefore the means of transport that costs least for everyone and brings the greatest benefit in terms of efficiency."