3 reasons why Copenhagen is the world

leader in urban sustainability

The buzz from Copenhagen is all about its new 'superhighway' for bikes. The real secret to its
pioneering urban design, though, is that it puts people first on all its streets.
Wed, Jul 18, 2012 at 05:06 PM

WHERE BIKES COUNT: Along a main Copenhagen commuter artery, a digital sign tallies
the cycling traffic. (Photo: Ashley Bristowe)
As the New York Times reported with much praise and unprecedented levels of RTing, if
my Twitter stream is any indication the city of Copenhagen continues to set the global pace
for urban sustainability, particularly as regards two-wheeled, self-propelled transportation.
But as is too often the case when the Times picks up on a story I started reporting three years
ago (Im not getting rich at this gig, so at least let me humblebrag), the papers coverage of
Copenhagens bike-driven transportation revolution goes for flash and novelty over
substance. Allow me to explain, in listicle fashion.
Herewith, the three key reasons why Copenhagen is the global model for sustainable urban
transport, in ascending order of importance:
1. Bicycle Superhighway!
This, of course, is the piece of the puzzle the Times chose to focus on, because no headline
writer in the history of journalism has ever passed up an opportunity to use the term
superhighway. As the Times reports, the city of Copenhagen has launched the first of 26
planned suburban commuter arteries built exclusively for bicycles: long, well-paved,
carefully maintained bike paths to link its suburbs with the inner city, up to 14 miles long and
requiring the cooperation of 21 separate municipal governments.
These are the numbers the Times reports. Remarkably, the story makes no mention of the
extraordinary figure for cyclings modal share in Copenhagen, so I will: fully 37 percent of

Copenhagen residents and 55 percent of downtown dwellers use bikes as their primary
mode of transportation. Which points to another key Copenhagen innovation ...
2. The Green Wave
As I first reported back in 2009 (always double-down on a humblebrag, I say), the most
innovative piece of cycling infrastructure in Copenhagen is a technique, not a physical thing.
Its the Green Wave a rejigging of the traffic lights along a primary downtown
commuter artery so that the green lights are synched to the pace of the average cyclist.
Heres a short film (set to a stellar track called Jeg savner min blaa cykel I miss my blue
bicycle" - by Denmark's own Ibens), in which Copenhagen cycle evangelist Mikael ColvilleAndersen rides the Green Wave:
This isnt technically innovative, of course. Every city in North America synchs up its lights
like this for cars on main drags. The reason Copenhagen is the worlds cycle infrastructure
leader and possibly its most livable city is because its the first to prioritize bikes (and,
in other parts of the city, people) over cars. Its really just that simple: Put people first in your
transport planning, and bike lanes and pedestrian thoroughfares (and great mass transit and
abundant public spaces) naturally follow. Which brings us to Copenhagens real innovation . .
.
3. Cities for People
Cities for People is the title of Copenhagen urban design guru Jan Gehls most recent book
and the core of the citys whole philosophy. Notice it doesnt say Cities for Bicycles. Bikes
arent the point; they are a tool, one of many means to the end of a sustainable city.
Copenhagens real revolution began in the early 1960s, when the main downtown shopping
street, the Strget, was so clogged with cars that the city considered banning bikes from it.
Instead, they banned cars. And they began a half-century of people-centered planning that
led, in its latest chapter, to innovations like the cycling superhighway.
The point, though, is not to exalt the bike. It is to make the city work for everyone. One of the
cities that has most fully embraced this philosophy is New York, which pedestrianized Times
Square, built real bike lanes and otherwise rethought its entire street system after Mayor
Michael Bloomberg hired Gehl acolyte Janette Sadik-Khan as head of the Department of
Transportation.
Heres Bloomberg just last week, summing up the Copenhagen approach to city building in a
concise sound bite: Our roads are not here for automobiles. Our roads are here for people
getting around.
Cars arent people, and their needs are not only not the same but often stand (and move) in
conflict. This insight not superhighways for bikes is Copenhagens greatest
contribution to the global conversation about urban sustainability.
site: http://www.mnn.com/green-tech/transportation/blogs/3-reasons-why-copenhagen-is-theworld-leader-in-urban-sustainability
Jan Gehl

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jan Gehl

Jan Gehl in 2006

Born

17 September 1936 (age 78)

Copenhagen, Denmark

Nationali
Danish
ty
Alma ma Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts,
ter
School of Architecture
Awards

Sir Patrick Abercrombie Prize (1993)

Civic Trust Award (2009)

Practice Gehl Architects

Jan Gehl, Hon. FAIA (born 17 September 1936) is a Danish architect and urban design
consultant based in Copenhagen and whose career has focused on improving the quality of
urban life by re-orienting city design towards the pedestrian and cyclist. He is a founding
partner of Gehl Architects.

Biography
Gehl received a Masters of Architecture from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in
Copenhagen in 1960, and practiced architecture from 1960 to 1966. In 1966 he received a
research grant from the institution for "studies of the form and use of public spaces," and has
since been a lecturer and professor there, and a Visiting Professor in Canada, the US, New
Zealand, Mexico, Australia, Belgium, Germany, Poland and Norway. He is a founding partner
of Gehl Architects Urban Quality Consultants.
As a "young architect working in the suburbs," Gehl married a psychologist and "had many
discussions about why the human side of architecture was not more carefully looked after by
the architects, landscape architects, and planners... My wife and I set out to study the
borderland between sociology, psychology, architecture, and planning."[1]

Influence

Gehl Architects' project for Brighton New Road employing shared space, awarded
the UK Civic Trust Award

Gehl first published his influential Life Between Buildings in Danish in 1971, with the first
English translation published in 1987. Gehl advocates a sensible, straightforward approach to
improving urban form: systematically documenting urban spaces, making gradual
incremental improvements, then documenting them again.
Gehl's book Public Spaces, Public Life describes how such incremental improvements have
transformed Copenhagen from a car-dominated city to a pedestrian-oriented city over 40
years. Copenhagen's Strget carfree zone, one of the longest pedestrian shopping areas in
Europe, is primarily the result of Gehl's work.[citation needed] In fact, Gehl often uses the phrase
"copenhagenize" to describe his vision of how urban centres can embrace bicycle culture and
urban cycling.
Gehl participates in and advises many urban design and public projects around the world:

In 2004 he carried out an important study in to the quality of the public

realm in London, commissioned by Central London Partnership and
Transport for London, and supported City of Wakefield and the town of
Castleford in developing and delivering better public spaces, as part of an
initiative known as "The Castleford Project".

In 2007-08 he was hired by New York City's Department of Transportation

to re-imagine New York City streets by introducing designs to improve life
for pedestrians and cyclists. The DOT used Gehl's work to "directly inform"
the implementation of their new urban planning and design policies and
projects.[2]

Gehl has been influential in Australia and New Zealand as well, where he
prepared Public Life studies for the city centres of Melbourne (1994 and
2004),[3] Perth (1995 and 2009),[4] Adelaide (2002)[5] Sydney (2007),[6]
Auckland (2008)[7] and Christchurch.[8] In 2010 Gehl was hired by the
Hobart City Council to prepare a design strategy for the city of Hobart,
Tasmania.[9]

Gehl credits the "grandmother of humanistic planning" Jane Jacobs for drawing his attention
to the importance of human scale. Fifty years ago she said go out there and see what works
and what doesnt work, and learn from reality. Look out of your windows, spend time in the
streets and squares and see how people actually use spaces, learn from that, and use it.
Site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Gehl