Skip to main content

Copenhagen ‘a haven for cyclists’

According to citymetric.com, Copenhagen is a haven for cyclists. They have a special orange cycling bridge over the harbour and everything from mail to Christmas trees is delivered by cycle. In the city there are more cycles than people, while a traffic system encourages the residents to cycle, with the promise of a stop-free ride into the city. It's all thanks to a traffic management system known as the Green Wave, which operates at peak times. Traffic signage is timed such that, if a cyclist travels at
January 9, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
According to citymetric.com, Copenhagen is a haven for cyclists. They have a special orange cycling bridge over the harbour and everything from mail to Christmas trees is delivered by cycle. In the city there are more cycles than people, while a traffic system encourages the residents to cycle, with the promise of a stop-free ride into the city.

It's all thanks to a traffic management system known as the Green Wave, which operates at peak times. Traffic signage is timed such that, if a cyclist travels at a steady 20km per hour, they should be able to travel all the way into town without hitting a red light. This has the added benefit of ensuring that cyclists move at about the same pace, thereby creating safer cycle lanes. In the evenings, the system is reversed, so cyclists leaving the city can travel home uninterrupted.

The Green Wave was first launched in 2007 on Nørrebrogade, a main street in the city centre. By 2012, the number of cyclists on the street had risen by 20 per cent, so the system has since been rolled out to other streets around the city.

The one downside, of course, is for cyclists who live centrally but cycle out of the city in the mornings. These, though, are in the minority, so there are far fewer cycles on these routes, and fewer safety issues to contend with.

Now, the city is introducing another, similar system, which detects cyclists approaching an intersection: if enough cyclists are moving together, the light will stay green until they pass.

Related Content

  • AAA report: caught red-handed
    February 17, 2020
    Using published crash statistics, the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety’s report found that 939 people were killed in red-light running crashes in 2017 – a rise of 28% since 2012. Moreover, more than a quarter (28%) of crash deaths at signalised intersections “are the result of a driver running through a red light”.
  • Øresund bridges the front line for border crossing traffic
    September 15, 2016
    Timothy Compston considers the challenges faced by the operators of the Øresund Bridge between Denmark and Sweden, the largest structure of its kind across Europe. In light of the concerns about the ongoing security threat and the unprecedented flow of migrants, many of the countries that make up the Schengen Area in Europe have re-introduced border controls. For its part, Sweden has rolled out ID checks for train, bus and ferry passengers from Denmark placing the landmark Øresund Bridge very much on the fr
  • Legal streetfight brews as Trump 'saves' New York from congestion charge
    February 20, 2025
    MTA lawyers challenge USDoT move to shut down Manhattan toll scheme
  • Two wheels good
    June 25, 2018
    As cycling becomes an increasingly popular method for commuting and recreation, what moves are afoot to keep the growing numbers of cyclists safe on ever-more-busy roads? Alan Dron puts on his helmet and pedals off to look. It would have seemed incredible just a decade ago, but cycling in London has become almost unfeasibly popular. The Transport for London (TfL) June 2017 Strategic Cycling Analysis document noted there were now 670,000 cycle trips a day in the UK capital, an increase of 130% since 2000.