A bit weird this as I don't believe in coincidences. However I study mechanical design engineering with the open university. And while my speciality is obviously mechanical design and structures. I have to read a variety of subjects surrounding design and innovation to have a well rounded knowledge.
Well current topic is about innovation for change. How products, services or system innovations change society or vice versa. The case study for systems is........ Wait for it....... Copenhagen transport network! So I have been reading about this for the last few days now. Obviously
@steveindenmark will know more and better as he has first hand experience. But I will try to summarise what appears to be some major differences.
Their is an acknowledgement from their government that all forms of transport need to exist. They haven't legislated cars out of the town. Or priced people onto bicycles. Nor have they reduced car lane capacity to favour bicycles. Merely catered to fix the most pressing congestion issue which was cycles.
In various videos in the course material (interviewee was a city architect) acknowledge various issues with cyclists too. Issues with cycle parking interfering with pedestrians. But instead of introducing fines and penalties. They install cycle parking in the most popular places to encourage cyclists to be more considerate in problem areas. Instead of punishing the symptom they instead chose to fix the core issue of lack of cycle parking in popular areas and fix the cause.
They also noted cyclists weren't patient enough to stop for pedestrians crossing the cycle route at bus stops. So instead of painting a thousand give ways. They widened the bus stop islands to give pedestrians safe refugee to disembark and then wait to cross instead of forcing them into a live cycle route.
They ackowledge that cyclists feel there's a rhythm to cycling and dislike stopping and staring. So apparently traffic light timings are set so that cycles travelling at 20kph should not need to ever stop at a red light.
It seems that instead of legislating. Introducing unenforceable penalties and painting pointless lines they actually address the causes of traffic issues and make it naturally more welcoming to cycle.
There's also a wider infrastructure that makes it easier to live with a bicycle. Busses allow bicycles. Also taxis have bicycle racks on the back too. So you don't "need" to own a car for your weekly shop. You could cycle to the store do your shopping, the get a taxi home as they can bring the bicycle too.
Seems like a bit of a utopia for a city life rather than just cycling.
