Copenhagen has become a place that’s globally synonymous with great cycling culture. Yet the city is not coasting on its laurels, it’s always introducing new features, from gorgeous new bridges to street-embedded lighting. Here’s a video tour of all the city’s newest biking innovations.
It’s not just that Copenhagen is so good at designing for bikes, it’s that its planners and engineers are continuously outdoing themselves. We’ve talked about the “green wave“, a signalling system that prioritises bikes, and covered their impressive $US6 million Cykelslangen bridge which opened last month, but as always, Copenhagen is taking it to the next level. One new highlight: The city installed tiny LEDs in the bike lanes which light up green to let bikers know they’re indeed pedalling at the right pace to catch all the green lights ahead. And the city is working on six more bike-only bridges over the harbour, including one that will move 11,000 riders per day.
While some of the moves are flashy and high-tech, just as impressive are the little things the city has done to make itself more welcoming to cyclists. Garbage bins on the street, for example, have been angled to make it easier for a person on a bike to toss their waste while riding by. And on cobblestone streets — the bane of biking through any historic city — they have added lanes of smooth cobblestones on either side which preserve the heritage of the block without creating a bumpy ride for bikes. [Streetfilms]