Anyone who has spent more than five minutes in Copenhagen knows that the bicycle is, if not the favoured mode of transportation for city residents, then at least the most convenient. Getting around on two wheels is easier than on four, making the bicycle Copenhagen's equivalent of London's underground - the quickest way to get around town.
However, despite the popularity of bikes and the opening of a true subway, the city plans to attract 30,000 new residents to a city that, despite the popularity of bikes, already brims with cars and busses. An extra 85,000 cars daily are expected to spill onto city streets by 2020, more than double the 80,000 commuters who already drive to Copenhagen daily.
That increase has city officials scrambling for solutions before traffic grinds to a halt.
Out of the car
The city's two most green proposals to solve traffic problems involve getting drivers out of their cars entirely, both by narrowing main some arteries, making more space for bicycles and less room for cars and by extending the city's recently opened metro system.
After a report in April showed that two-wheeled traffic had increased by 14 percent in five years, some politicians went as far as to call for one main thoroughfare and the city centre to be closed off entirely to private automobile traffic.
'We should signal that we want to promote bicycle transport,' said the head of the city council's environmental committee, Winne Berndtson to daily newspaper Berlingske Tidende at that time. 'I don’t think we will have to wait a long time until car traffic is removed from Nørrebrogade (a main artery, ed.) and the bicycle lanes are extended. We need a discussion on tight traffic and parking for bicycles. It’s more relevant than discussing traffic jams and parking for cars.’
The other option is to move people underground, extending the city's new metro system. Despite cost overruns with the original line, persistent operational trouble, and problems determining the path of a new city-ring, Copenhageners consistently answer that an extended metro system is on their wish list for their city.
‘Many Copenhageners have seen the traffic chaos in other big cities,’ said Jørn Thulstrup, director of polling institute IFKA. ‘They want Copenhagen to remain as calm as it is. The Metro is especially attractive because it runs underground.’
No free rides
For those that absolutely can't or won't give up their car, the city's strategy is clear - no free rides. The city has on several occasions aired the idea of road pricing or tolls. Here as well, the reaction among users has been positive, but the city has run into a wall with the government.
In April, Transportation Minister Flemming Hansen responded to a Copenhagen inquiry about the possibility of implementing road pricing by saying: 'It's a no. I can't see that it will happen for at least ten years. It's out of the question for passenger vehicles.'
Nevertheless, the city continues to press on. Today it reported that it was drawing up possible models for a system that would allow them to charge motorists for driving in the city.
Similar programmes have been implemented in both London and Oslo and have contributed to a clear fall in the amount of traffic on city streets.
One year after London's Congestion Charge was implemented, driving speed had increased 37 percent and traffic delays by 40 percent. Overall traffic fell by 38 percent.
The city expects to choose its final model for a road pricing scheme by summer. |
