A Cyclist's Sense of Place in Copenhagen

When you imagine great bike infrastructure, it is easy to think of bike superhighways and bike bridges, but what makes Copenhagen and other great biking cities so amazing is all of the tiny details that they incorporate and make the expected norm. At the end of the day its about making a cyclist feel like they belong in the city and are not an afterthought, and the micro-infrastructure measures that Copenhagen takes makes all the difference. 

Instead of listing out all of the things Copenhagen has that make biking so beautiful, I will instead take you on a little bike journey. 

I am getting ready to leave my hostel and go for a ride around town and I unlock my bike with a key that inserts into the built-in back wheel lock, making it easy to park anywhere around town. 

(Image taken from Dutch Bike Bits on google)

The bike parking is located around the back of the hostel on an elevated deck, and I have to go down a flight of stairs to get to the street. Luckily, there is a ramp built in to the side of the stairs so that I can easily roll my bike up and down it. 

(Image taken from Mikael Colville-Andersen on google)

Once on the street, I hop on my bike and merge into the constant stream of bike traffic on the bike highway. The highway itself has many bits and bobs to make it feel safe and easy to use. The lane itself is elevated a few centimeters above the lanes of car traffic and a few centimeters below the sidewalk, making it clear where exactly the bikes belong on the street. However, the curbs that separate these lanes of travel are all low enough to be easily mountable on your bike.

(Image taken from Greater Greater Washington on google)

As I travel along within a herd of other bikers, I stop at the first red light. The bike lane has its own bike light which is on a smaller scale then the car traffic signal and the light filters through a bike-shaped cutout. As I come to a stop, I come up alongside a bike railing which also has a place to balance my foot so I don't have to completely dismount from my bike. 

(Image taken from Copenhagenize on google)

When I start going again, I know that if I maintain a speed of about 20 kilometers per hour, I will ride a green wave and not have to stop again at a red light. I stay on the bike highway until I get to the harbor where I need to make a left turn. Normally on a bike in Copenhagen you need to make  a two point turn to go left, which means cross the street first and then position yourself to get the next green light going in the direction that you need to go. However, there are sometimes left turn lanes just for bikes, which is what they have at this particular turn. I don't have a good picture of this, but you can imagine. The lane through which the bikes cross the intersection is electric blue to make it easy for everyone to know where they belong. 

At this point I've traveled about a half mile and already encountered each and every one of these things. I cross over "The Kissing Bridge" to get across the canal. This bridge has no lanes for car travel and instead only offers crossing to pedestrians and bikes. There are many such bridges in Copenhagen, making it much easier to get around on bike than any other mode of transport. 

At this point I'm ready to get off my bike and walk around a bit, so i find one of the many areas in which to park my bike (it can be anywhere though, leaning up against a building and just locking your back wheel is completely normal and expected) and I head off looking for my next adventure.

(This picture is mine)

All of the things I mentioned is just a taste of all the little things that the city of Copenhagen includes to make biking easy and comfortable for everyone, age 8 to 80. It is truly the small things that make all the difference, and none of these things are too terribly crazy. It is totally reasonable to imagine that American cities have it within them to incorporate some of these strategies to make biking more manageable and attractive.