Transportation

Documentary Video: Cycling in Copenhagen

By RTH Staff
Published December 14, 2009

The excellent Streetfilms folks have produced a video on Copenhagen's climate-friendly, bike-friendly streets, detailing some of the neat innovations Copenhagen has introduced to make cycling safer, faster and more convenient:

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By seancb (registered) - website | Posted December 15, 2009 at 09:02:12

Wow. I'm moving.

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By JonC (registered) | Posted December 16, 2009 at 08:28:48

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By zookeeper (registered) | Posted December 16, 2009 at 09:04:54

^ Excuses excuses. Cities with all kinds of different climates have high rates of cycling, there's this thing called "winter clothing" and amazingly it works.

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By Jonathan Dalton (registered) | Posted December 16, 2009 at 10:03:36

I got the impression from those links that the climate isn't that different. Like, 5ºC average difference? Amazing how people here consider winter biking hard but winter skiing, winter snowshoeing and winter hiking are natural things to do? WTF is the difference? You're outside in cold weather doing a physical activity. I consider it more normal than that universally dreaded staple of Canadian winter, snowstorm traffic.

[Comment edited by Jonathan Dalton on 2009-12-16 09:05:19]

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By seancb (registered) - website | Posted December 16, 2009 at 11:19:28

I think JonC was pointing out similarities, not differences...

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By jason (registered) | Posted December 16, 2009 at 11:23:34

yup, the climate is quite similar, although it doesn't get nearly as warm in the summer in Copenhagen. Their coldest month sees an average high of plus 2, while our coldest month sees an average high of minus 1. Only a 3 degree difference.

Of course, if anyone does think that weather is somehow an excuse for Hamilton, please explain Montreal.

Great links JonC. Thx for pointing this out.

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By zookeeper (registered) | Posted December 16, 2009 at 11:35:52

^Oops sorry about that. I guess my trolldar is set too high.

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By JonC (registered) | Posted December 16, 2009 at 14:59:57

To clarify, yes, very similar climates. We get more precipitation and have more exaggerated extremes in the summer and winter (since they have the ocean to moderate the temp), but they cycle in the snow.

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By birdie (registered) | Posted December 16, 2009 at 15:23:40

I guess my trolldar is set too high.

What are you of all people doing feeding trolls in the first place?

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By zookeeper (registered) | Posted December 16, 2009 at 15:30:01

What are you of all people doing feeding trolls in the first place?

Oops...

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By A Smith (anonymous) | Posted December 16, 2009 at 19:39:10

Comments with a score below -5 are hidden by default.

You can change or disable this comment score threshold by registering an RTH user account.

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By geoff's two cents (registered) | Posted December 17, 2009 at 11:34:59

Of course, smog may present another problem for prospective cyclists. Formerly one myself, and determined to make a go of cycling whatever the odds (the experiment petered out after two months), I don't recall my cycling experience along Aberdeen (toward Mac) being all that enjoyable, and there were smoggy days when I felt downright awful afterward. This may be an added advantage enjoyed by our non-rust-belt cousins to the northeast.

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By Then Again (anonymous) | Posted December 18, 2009 at 12:14:05

I'm beginning to rethink this bike lane thing. Why should I want to ride on routes with high auto use? Better, I think, to avoid autos, stitching together routes through quieter residential backstreets, parking lots, institutional campuses, parks and trails. Mind you, I'm mostly riding for exercise and recreation. Some parts of the city, I admit, lack the necessary abundance of these amenities, but even on busier streets I'm better off riding on the sidewalks. For starters, urban expressways have few pedestrians on the sidewalks. Mind, there's that little thing about the legality of bikes on sidewalks, but it is seldom enforced and should be repealed.

There's also a political upside. I think biking would get more support from non-bikers if it meant joining cause to reduce through auto-traffic in residential neighbourhoods, widening sidewalks on busy commercial streets and restricting more direct routes between the two to human-powered conveyances. I suspect it could be cheaper too. I note that auto traffic is reduced in some central downtown Montreal residential streets (Clark, running north & south between St. Urbain and St. Laurent) by making them one way in one direction for a few blocks, then one way the other. Easy access for residents, but frustrating for through auto traffic. Ferguson Ave. is relatively quiet in downtown Hamilton in part due to the block closed to auto traffic between King and Main. Paving stones aren't attractive to car drivers either, but this is a more expensive technique.

I'm thinking that the bike lobby in this city would find it a better tactic to advocate separating bike from car routes, limiting the points of confrontation to places where they cannot avoid crossing, rather than by trying to carve lanes from the urban expressways. At least until bike riding becomes more popular and its advantages even more evident to residents.

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By highwater (registered) | Posted December 18, 2009 at 14:43:29

Riding on the sidewalk confers a very dangerous, false sense of security.

Not to mention that this false sense of security is achieved at the expense of the safety and security of pedestrians. Riding on the sidewalk is illegal, dangerous, and selfish.

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By KennethMoyle (anonymous) | Posted December 26, 2009 at 20:29:19

The fellow in the video, Mikael Colville-Andersen, has some engrossing cyclist pr0n on his flikr photostream ...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/16nine/sets/72157594400316816/

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