Skip to main content

Copenhagen hailed as most ‘vital’ city in new study

Copenhagen has been hailed as the most ‘vital’ city in a new study as a result of its strong sustainability, cycling and mobility credentials. The Future Spaces Foundation’s study, Vital Cities: Transport Systems Scorecard, an interactive data hub, awards connectivity ratings to twelve cities across the world. The research looks at key factors that make cities thrive, for example breathability, bike and foot networks, use of data and apps, ranking each city based on its performance across more than 30
May 11, 2016 Read time: 2 mins
Copenhagen has been hailed as the most ‘vital’ city in a new study as a result of its strong sustainability, cycling and mobility credentials.

The Future Spaces Foundation’s study, Vital Cities: Transport Systems Scorecard, an interactive data hub, awards connectivity ratings to twelve cities across the world.

The research looks at key factors that make cities thrive, for example breathability, bike and foot networks, use of data and apps, ranking each city based on its performance across more than 30 individual measures. Based on a mix of qualitative assessments, such as the strength of electric vehicle policies and hard data, such as the density of transit networks, the scorecard aggregates each individual score to award an overall A-F grade.

The Foundation undertook the research in order to assess how transport infrastructure can facilitate vitality within high density cities; as well as to identify how improved connectivity can allow for sustainable growth for future generations.

The chosen 12 cities were grouped into four categories; Global Cities (London, New York, Hong Kong); Mega Cities (Beijing, Mumbai, Sao Paulo); Green Cities (Copenhagen, Singapore, Vancouver); and Car Cities (Dubai, Houston, Kuala Lumpur).

Whilst no city scored a perfect A+ overall, Copenhagen, with its first-class record for sustainability, safety and mobility, topped the scorecard with an impressive B+ score. Long-term investment and an ability to adapt to the ever-growing consumer demand for real-time information with innovative data policies helped Global Cities to gain pace with Copenhagen.

In the meantime, Car Cities lagged behind the rest due to their poor efforts to curb car use and promote vehicle-sharing, walking and cycling, all receiving a D or D- grade overall.

As Mega Cities continue to boom, propelled by industrialisation and mass migration from rural areas, low incomes and rapidly rising populations proved to be particular challenges to improving networks and ensuring that basic infrastructure meets demands in these cities.

However, innovative new uses of data and apps to improve connectivity in a cost-effective way are helping these cities to gain pace with global competitors.

Related Content

  • June 18, 2024
    Overture is open to the bigger picture
    Four of the biggest players in the world of mapping have joined forces to create easy-to-use, interoperable open data that will power the next generation of maps. Kevin Borras talks collaborative interoperability with Overture Map Foundation’s Marc Prioleau and TomTom’s Willem Strijbosch
  • November 11, 2022
    Keeping cool in LA
    As the earth’s temperatures rise, cities are set to become hotter. A project in Los Angeles may point the way to keeping cool while improving access to transit services in an uncertain future
  • October 22, 2014
    Bespoke ITS is helping to reduced collisions on America’s rural roads
    David Crawford cherrypicks conference and award highlights Almost 30% of all US citizens live in rural areas or very small communities, and 34 of the 50 states exceed this level in their own populations, with the proportions rising as high as 85%. And although rural routes carry only 35% of all traffic, the accidents that occur on them account for some 54% of all US road traffic accident deaths.
  • April 25, 2012
    Road safety - the challenge ahead
    More than 1.3 million people die in road accidents each year. If nothing is done, this already chilling figure risks to rise to 1.9 million deaths per year. Around 90 per cent of road fatalities occur in emerging and developing countries. Here, the mixture of population growth and higher numbers of vehicles due to rising incomes are proving a deadly combination, as infrastructure and regulatory environment have difficulty keeping pace.