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

  • Opinion: Infrastructure Act falls short
    December 16, 2021
    The Infrastructure Investment & Jobs Act has been passed, garnering applause across the political spectrum – but not everyone is excited. Scott Shepard of Iomob explains his concerns, and points to some unwelcome parallels with the recent Cop26 climate conference
  • Study finds rumble strips save lives on rural highways
    June 2, 2015
    A recently completed study shows that rumble strips are proving to be an effective and low-cost way to reduce crashes on Michigan's state highways. The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) started a major rumble strip program for two-lane high-speed rural highways in 2008. Centre-line and shoulder rumble strips were installed on all MDOT rural, non-freeway highways with posted speed limits of 55 mph and appropriate paved lane and shoulder widths. To date, 5,700 miles of centre-line rumble strips
  • Google maps the future of traffic and travel information?
    March 16, 2012
    Will the relentless growth of Google lead to it becoming the ultimate provider of travel information services? Huw Williams investigates Google’s strategy and David Crawford discovers what two principal rivals are doing to keep pace. In the first weeks of 2012 one company staked two divergent claims on the future of transport. One is the science fiction of only a decade ago, turned into reality: the driverless car. The other seems more prosaic, yet in its own way is just as significant a marker of the futur
  • Transport for New South Wales launches transport innovation program
    February 11, 2016
    The New South Wales (NSW) government in Australia is launching a 12 month program to uncover the trends and technologies that it claims will revolutionise the way the government and customers plan, build and use transport. Announcing the Future Transport program, NSW Minister for Transport and Infrastructure Andrew Constance said he was calling on the world's brightest tech minds to find the next big idea that would shake up transport in the state. Future Transport will kick off with a two-day summit