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

  • Auckland’s Future Streets project delivers improved facilities for pedestrians
    July 10, 2017
    Residents and visitors to Māngere are set to benefit from shared and wider pathways for cyclists and pedestrians, improved bus stops, improved access to the town centre and local schools and safer crossings following the completion of the Te Ara Mua – Future Streets project in Auckland, New Zealand.
  • When speed compliance becomes a safety issue
    March 29, 2017
    David Crawford finds that softly, softly can be safely, safely when it comes to speed enforcement. Comedians and controversial TV presenters have long made jokes about having to watch the speedometer so closely as they pass speed camera after speed camera that they mow down bus queues. But the joke may have some factual basis according to a study by researchers from the University of Western Australia.
  • EVs: Time for a rethink
    December 14, 2021
    Given a growing body of evidence that EVs are not the clean, green machines they are made out to be, Andrew Bunn suggests they can only be part of the puzzle – not the answer to environmental problems
  • New junction on London’s Cycle Superhighway offers safety measures for cyclists
    August 25, 2015
    Britain’s first junction designed to avoid cyclists being hit by left-turning traffic is unveiled today, the beginning of a new wave of such junctions on London’s busiest main roads. Cyclists and turning motor traffic will move in separate phases, with left-turning vehicles held back to allow cyclists to move without risk, and cyclists held when vehicles are turning left. There will also be a new ‘two-stage right turn’ to let cyclists make right turns in safety. For straight-ahead traffic, early-release