CULTURE DANISH CYCLIST

The city of Copenhagen is known for the widespread practice of using the bicycle as a means of transport and was officially designated the world's first city of cycling. Last year was also named "The best city for cyclists" and "The best city to live." The locals are famous because of their preference for this means of transportation, a phenomenon that other world cities seek to follow. This city is actually a haven for users of cycling, with 390 kilometers of bike lanes, reserved for cyclists.

The cyclist Danish culture is as old as the bicycle itself. The inhabitants of Copenhagen use the bicycle to go to work since year 1880. At that time, move bike was the fastest, easiest and most friendly way around the city environment - and continues to se- it.


Velocipede, bicyclo, large bi, bicycle. Both the name and the means of transport have changed over the last decades. The bike (the word means two wheels) was first introduced in 1871 by British engineer James Starley. This means of locomotion, also called great bi or bicyclo, I had a large wheel in front which allowed advance more per ride. Unfortunately the great bi was quite dangerous and impractical to assemble.
A few years later, in 1885, James Stanley developed the "Baton bike", which is the bicycle we know today: a means of transport easy to use, safe and fast.

Copenhagen has developed bike culture

In Copenhagen bike popularity evolved, especially in 1920 and 1930. In the city streets crossed people from all walks of life, and pedaled side by side. The mother or the lady of the middle class back cycling home after going shopping, the wealthy banker went to work by bicycle and the young craftsman carrying your bike stuff.

After the Second World War, times have changed. In the 1950s, new machines were introduced and the bike returned to the bike racks. The inhabitants of Copenhagen have replaced their bicycles for motorcycles and cars, and when, in the 1960s, the planners looked into his crystal ball not seen many cyclists. Instead they established the presence of gas streams, wide highways and towering skyscrapers.

With the oil crisis the population left this dream in the 70s: in Copenhagen appeared the "Sundays without cars" and in the streets of the city bike inhabitants manifested: "Copenhagen without cars." Many people have opted for a clean city and chose the bike instead of the car.

future city cycling

The first bike path appeared in Copenhagen in 1910, but most of the cycling network has been established over the last 25 years. Currently 50% of Copenhagen's population chooses the bike to move every day. Most do it all year - winter and summer, even when it rains or snows.

Did you know that there are more bicycles than 40,000 inhabitants in the capital? The four hundred kilometers of bike paths make it easy to move around the city. Even during peak hours cyclists invade the city and go through it, and while the drivers sit in their cars in the middle of traffic jams, cyclists outnumber us.


The future of the city of bikes

The city is currently establishing a green bike path that will cross from one end to the other in order to ensure a safe and green transportation network for cyclists while creating green spaces in the urban landscape.

"Motorways bike lanes" out of town will be in the near future a reality. When the first via "city - suburb", a type of fast track reserved for cyclists, open in late 2011, will have a length of 15 km from the center of Copenhagen.

The infrastructure is not the only project currently under way. At this time the Municipality of Copenhagen is sending 50 men and women police to the streets for, bike, ensure a good cyclist culture and a positive attitude among users of bike paths. For two weeks offered "Karma-cakes" to cyclists who, through good behavior, transmitted "A cyclist Karma" positive other cyclists.

Rub your shoulders to your fellow citizen. Make your most pleasant city to live, and sustainable urban spaces. Remove your seat belt and go cycling. Be cyclist!