Ten Years Ago!! Someone brought up that I NEVER posted this Streetfilm to this Youtube account. It has already been watched 600,000 times, so why not a few more??
While Streetfilms was in Copenhagen for the Velo-City 2010 conference, of course we wanted to showcase its biking greatness. But we were also looking to take a different perspective then all the myriad other videos out there. Since there were an abundance of advocates, planners, and city transportation officials attending from the U.S. and Canada, we thought it’d be awesome to get their reactions to the city’s built environment and compare to bicycling conditions in their own cities.
If you’ve never seen footage of the Copenhagen people riding bikes during rush hour – get ready – it’s quite a site, as nearly 38% of all transportation trips in Copenhagen are done by bike. With plenty of safe, bicycle infrastructure (including hundreds of miles of physically separated cycletracks) its no wonder that you see all kinds of people on bikes everywhere. 55% of all riders are female, and you see kids as young as 3 or 4 riding with packs of adults.
Much thanks to the nearly two dozen folks who talked to us for this piece. You’ll hear astute reflections from folks like Jeff Mapes (author of “Pedaling Revolution”), Martha Roskowski (Program Manager, GO Boulder), Andy Clarke (President, League of American Bicyclists), Andy Thornley (Program Director, San Francisco Bike Coalition) and Tim Blumenthal (President, Bikes Belong) and Yvonne Bambrick (Executive Director, Toronto’s Cyclists Union) just to name drop a few of the megastars.
17 Comments
Very lucky people who live in Denmark – wish I could live there…
Not up to Dutch standards.
Visit the Netherlands.
Amsterdam is a much better cycling city than Copenhagen, and Amsterdam is considered the worst place to cycle in the Netherlands.
Seems like they’ve sat on their laurels in the last decade and continue to successfully market themselves as the leading city…
In Norway we're still stuck on painted bike lanes which are inherently dangerous for cyclists and they care not to improve it.
Bicycling has even gone down, purely based on the bike counters placed at key locations in my city of Fredrikstad, they really give no shit.
Some times I wish I lived in Denmark or the Netherlands.
Thanks for a new release of this video. I'm asking myself whether my locality (Boise) has made progress towards being a better environment for bicyclists since I first saw it. Sadly, I have to say "no". I think many people with the power to do something about it have had good intentions, but rapid growth; and the supersizing of the personal vehicle fleet have made the streets less safe than they were 10 years ago.
Beautiful imagery. Love the city. ❤
have these people heard of the Netherlands?
Copenhagen : 6/10 compared to London: 1/10 and all of the Netherlands 10/10
Copenhagen is Great … but it's not Amsterdam: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjzzV2Akyds
Imagine if the bike shops could sell all of them HELMETS?
For all the commentors who will say, the Netherlands are much better for cycling.
I only can say…………………..it took us 50 to 60 years!!! And it's still not perfect.
And what "not just bikes" said, every city can become Copenhagen, and after Copenhagen you can become Amsterdam, and after Amsterdam you can become The Netherlands.
But it takes time…………50 to 60 years, and a lot of money. Tax money, and every euro spent well.
Almost none of the cyclists wear helmets.
About the green wave in Copenhagen …
An alternative is to change the infrastructure in such a way that cyclists can cycle using less traffic lights. Like underpasses, overpasses, roundabouts, early detection loops, cycle detection apps, cycle streets, separate cyle infrastructure without car traffic, or reducing traffic lights encounters (like "All Directions Green").
I am (Date: July 2020) used to such cycle oriented infrastructure. As shown here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqj71LEbvZs . Not just one city, one street. But implemented for all (well, most or many) cities, and for all streets.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41XBzAOmmIU . Roundabouts with priority for cyclists. (Or roundabouts with refugee islands).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ar1f6KjAgJE . underpasses
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZ1dcbYtC74 . cycling over a school.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNiIWq91RMI . Cycle streets (cars are guest) … by the way … See video: it is forbidden to jump from the bridge shown, but everybody does anyway 😉
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFEfr7Amn6U . Design (or retrofit) cities when you can.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBwMRGxtZ9k . The better intersection. Or, alternatively … (see next)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIqCei97M74 . All directions green at the same time … and still safer!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqQSwQLDIK8 . Bonus: A really busy intersection.
Note: I do realize that this video is from 2010 , 10 years ago. Not a fair comparison.
Amazing example, I hope and pray that every major city in the world adopts this model!!!
Watched this in 2010 but still a fabulous way to see what's possible.
So nice to see people cycling together and enjoying the commute!!
❤