Copenhagen, one of the world’s most bicycle-friendly cities, has begun turning its extensive network of cycle paths into bike highways in an effort to push more commuters to leave their cars at home.
Considered one of Europe’s two “bicycle capitals” along with Amsterdam, Copenhagen has more bicycles than people and cycling is so popular that its numerous bike paths become congested.
Two-wheeler traffic jams are especially regular on the main Noerrebrogade thoroughfare used by about 36,000 cyclists a day.
PHOTO: AFP
“You have to elbow your way in to go forward and some cyclists aren’t always thoughtful,” 22-year-old university student Lea Bresell complained.
The creation of bike highways “comes right on time,” Danish Cyclist Federation spokesman Frits Bredal said. “Copenhagen’s roads are overloaded with people who want to ride their bicycles in all kinds of weather.”
If in the 1960s Danes viewed the car as the symbol of freedom, the bicycle has assumed that role today, Bredal said.
“It’s a mode of transportation used by all social classes, even politicians ride bikes,” he said.
It is on the crowded Noerrebrogade — the busiest bicycle street in Europe, according to the federation — that city planners have decided to build the first of Copenhagen’s environmentally friendly boulevards.
The jammed bike paths will be widened up to 4m on either side of the road, which will itself be reserved for buses only.
The idea is to make Noerrebrogade “Europe’s great cycling street,” said Andreas Roehl, Copenhagen’s bicycle program manager, who is also known as “Mister Bike.”
However, Roehl is not content with making life easier for Copenhagen’s inner-city cyclists, he wants to get suburbanites out of their cars and onto two wheels as well.
His goal is to increase the percentage of suburban commuters cycling to and from the city from the 37 percent it is today to more than 50 percent by 2015.
Within the city, 55 percent of all commuters already travel by bike.
Copenhagen’s bike highways of tomorrow will be dotted with pit stops where it will be possible to pump up tires, fix a chain and have a drink of water, Roehl said.
Synchronized traffic lights prioritizing bicycles over cars will bring riders from the suburbs into Copenhagen “quickly and safely,” he said.
That “could lead car-addicted suburbanites to take their bikes to go to Copenhagen,” said cyclist Bresell, for whom bike highways will “make life even more difficult for motorists and easier for cyclists.”
Already Copenhagen stands out among other European capitals for its cycling infrastructure, counting more than 390km of bike paths.
Between 2006 and this year, it spent 250 million kroner (US$44 million) in bike infrastructure and an extra 75 million kroner was allotted for next year.
The first two city-to-suburb bicycle highways are scheduled to open at the end of next year and reach a distance of 15km from central Copenhagen, while a third, going as far as 20km from the capital’s center, will be put into service in 2012.
While celebrating the Danish capital’s efforts, Bredal said he hoped the rest of the Scandinavian country, which altogether has 5.5 million inhabitants and about 4 million bikes, would soon “follow Copenhagen’s example.”
Denmark’s other main cities — Aarhus, Odense and Aalborg — are already contemplating similar bike highways, according to the head of the Copenhagen project, Maria Helledi Streuli, who is eager to sing the plan’s praises.
“It’s an initiative that is good for the environment, for health,” Streuli said, adding that it also “makes it possible to unclog car traffic and to breathe easier in the city.”
Romania’s electoral commission on Saturday excluded a second far-right hopeful, Diana Sosoaca, from May’s presidential election, amid rising tension in the run-up to the May rerun of the poll. Earlier this month, Romania’s Central Electoral Bureau barred Calin Georgescu, an independent who was polling at about 40 percent ahead of the rerun election. Georgescu, a fierce EU and NATO critic, shot to prominence in November last year when he unexpectedly topped a first round of presidential voting. However, Romania’s constitutional court annulled the election after claims of Russian interference and a “massive” social media promotion in his favor. On Saturday, an electoral commission statement
Chinese authorities increased pressure on CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd over its plan to sell its Panama ports stake by sharing a second newspaper commentary attacking the deal. The Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office on Saturday reposted a commentary originally published in Ta Kung Pao, saying the planned sale of the ports by the Hong Kong company had triggered deep concerns among Chinese people and questioned whether the deal was harming China and aiding evil. “Why were so many important ports transferred to ill-intentioned US forces so easily? What kind of political calculations are hidden in the so-called commercial behavior on the
‘DOWNSIZE’: The Trump administration has initiated sweeping cuts to US government-funded media outlets in a move critics said could undermine the US’ global influence US President Donald Trump’s administration on Saturday began making deep cuts to Voice of America (VOA) and other government-run, pro-democracy programming, with the organization’s director saying all VOA employees have been put on leave. On Friday night, shortly after the US Congress passed its latest funding bill, Trump directed his administration to reduce the functions of several agencies to the minimum required by law. That included the US Agency for Global Media, which houses Voice of America, Radio Free Europe and Asia and Radio Marti, which beams Spanish-language news into Cuba. On Saturday morning, Kari Lake, a former Arizona gubernatorial and US
Indonesia’s parliament yesterday amended a law to allow members of the military to hold more government roles, despite criticisms that it would expand the armed forces’ role in civilian affairs. The revision to the armed forces law, pushed mainly by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s coalition, was aimed at expanding the military’s role beyond defense in a country long influenced by its armed forces. The amendment has sparked fears of a return to the era of former Indonesian president Suharto, who ex-general Prabowo once served and who used military figures to crack down on dissent. “Now it’s the time for us to ask the
RSS