Bicycle culture 2.0

The sharing economy has a lot of faces. For a quick and visible change cities may favor to focus on traffic for good reasons. Just recently the EU puts Germany, France and the UK to trial for harming the regulatory limits for air pollution. In Germany 66 cities are listed. Waiting until the car fleet is exchanged to modern cars takes 14 years in average. And this would not be a smart strategy from the perspective of healthiness.

We want to introduce you to copenhagenize.eu. That team of design thinkers works on planning cities, districts and neighbourhoods, integrating simplicity, logic and human nature into mobility networks.

They state: "The bicycle makes sense in cities. Investment in biycycle infrastructure is a modern and intelligent move for a city to make. Plenty of research shows the social, economic, environmental and health benefits from urban cycling. Studies from Denmark tell us that for every kilometer cycled, society enjoy a net profit of 23 cents, whereas for every kilometer driven by car we suffer a net loss of -85 cents. With rising urbanization, our cities need modern mobility solutions and the bicycle proves time and again that it can offer results."

In 2011 Copenhaganize started to publish an Index, that scores cities for their attractiveness for cyclists. The index is published every two years. In this 2017 version the index comprises 136 cities.

Copenhagenize Design Co. works hard to analyse and showcase the Top 20 large bicycle-friendly cities in the world for the Copenhagenize Index. But some smaller cities, with less than 600,000 inhabitants deserve to be highlighted for their ambitious measures in favor of urban cycling

“You can’t become a cycling city, if you don’t say something about cars. In order to increase the number of cyclists and develop a bicycle culture, it’s necessary to take some anti-car measures. If we get rid of the through traffic, you get fewer cars, more space for pedestrians and cyclists, and infrastructure gets an extra value.” asserts Filip Watteeuw, Ghent’s Mobility Councillor.

Stuttgart, one major center of the automotive industry in Germany with a Mayor belonging to the Green Party finds itself in surrounded by hills and is well-known for its difficult" traffic situation. How they managed to overcome the worst situations? 

Many mincing steps:

• Speed limits at gradients
• Stronger street cleaners
• Dust absorbing moss
• Optimized traffic lights (weniger Stop-and-go)
• Good luck with the weather

(full articles: www.sueddeutsche.de)

Take a look at what is happening in the world and let yourself be stimulated. If you want to change something, get in touch.

Get more knowledge directly from the source:

• www.copenhagenize.eu
• www.copenhagenizeindex.eu