Best Practice

Introduction

In order to serve the large number of cyclists, contemporary urban planners in Denmark are working to develop the physical cycling infrastructure all over the country. Wide cycle paths and cycle bridges increase safety, and ‘cycle superhighways’ are being expanded in the greater urban areas to increase access and reach. Denmark is implementing more and more superhighways for bicycles. The highways are not only expanding in the capital city, but the initiative is now also spreading to the second largest Danish city,Aarhus. By September 2018, a new 4 metre wide bicycle superhighway had been inaugurated.

The Cycle Superhighways is an inter-municipal cooperation aimed at creating a strong net of bike paths across the Capital Region of Denmark. The goal is to provide better conditions for bike commuters and encourage people to choose to commute by bike through new and innovative solutions,making the project a key factor in the overall development of sustainable mobility.

New Network of Cycle Super Highways in Denmark

Reason to Be Selected

Cycling on a daily basis makes a great difference to both the quality of life and our well-being. Nevertheless, we can only get more people to cycle – and keep those already cycling, if it feels safe to ride the bicycle. With the Cycle Super Highways, it becomes easier and safer to get from A to B – even if the distance is great. This is crucial if we are to address the increasing challenges regarding public health, climate and congestion

Cycling is an effective and healthy way of transportation.

Highlights:

Socio-economic research on the Danish bicycle superhighways shows that biking has many beneficial effects for society. Some of these effects are the decrease of sick days among employees, less traffic congestion and reduction of CO2 emissions.

The conclusion of the research shows that implementing bicycle superhighways would not only result in health benefits for the users, but also in socio-economic savings of approx. EUR 7.7 billion during the next 50 years.

Details

A cycle superhighway is a cycle route, where the commuters’ needs have been given the highest priority – providing a smooth ride with fewer stop and increased safety. The main purpose of the cycle superhighways is to create better conditions for cyclists, and to connect work-, study- and residential areas, making it a lot easier for commuters to bike to and from work instead of taking a car. Furthermore, the cycle superhighways run near stations making it attractive to combine cycling with public transportation.

In order to be categorised a 'cycle superhighway', a cycle route must comply with a set of quality measures such as air pumps, footrests, safer intersections, green waves and traffic lights timed to average cycling speed. The cycle superhighways are marked by road signs as well as orange signage spots in the asphalt making way-finding easier for commuters day and night – they simply follow the orange C.

Conclusions

Advocating bicycle traffic must be supported by perfect supporting traffic facilities .Good connectivity of bicycle superhighway will significantly encourage more people to chose cycling,,which is absolutely a more environmentaly way of transportation,contributing to both health and envirnment well.