Copenhagenized

I've wanted to get this shot for a while, passing the lump of rock beside the Innocent Path most mornings, and thinking 'That's just a wee jump to get over onto there'. Okay, so it's a bit bigger than I thought, and with the bike, and cycling shoes... But I got the shot (and this one, and this one).

The Copenhagenizing influence is there to be seen as well. I needed to be casual at work today, helping shifting things for an imminent office move, so just rode in in my jeans, t-shirt, no cycling gloves etc etc etc. It's a liberating feeling, and has a psychological influence (allegedly, from various reading I've done on the issue, being a cycling journalist and all... ;) ) on those around you in breaking down just a few of the 'them and us' divisions between 'normal' people and 'cyclists'. I'm planning on running with this theory a bit more through the summer, especially when the Sunbeam is restored. Meeting Mikael Colville-Andersen (from Copenhagenize.com) has had a profound effect, and I'm going to attempt to bring some dapper cycle wear to the streets of Edinburgh, forget about the morning 'race', and enjoy being on the bike even more than I do already.

I've actually been writing up the article for my website based on the Danish experiences of cycling and the more I think about it the more I just wonder how we got into our current transport mess, and wonder if, culturally, we can now ever reverse it.

Take for example a 'Desire Line' spotted in Copenhagen. At one particular junction there's a left turn into a street that was impossible to make because of a central reservation (remember they ride/drive on the right, so it's equivalent to our right turns). Cyclists, instead, would cut across a section of pavement to get to the road. It was safe, short, simple. In the UK this would lead to a 'how do we stop people doing this?' line of thought. In Denmark? 'People clearly need to do this, so let's put in a bike lane so they're doing it legally, and it's safer for pedestrians as they can now see that cyclists should be there.'

In another instance, there is one bridge in Copenhagen which carries roughly 25,000 cyclists over it a day. That's an immense number, and they all head into or out of the centre through one intersection on the city side of the water. In the space of one year 15 cyclists were killed on that intersection, which the authorities clearly decided wasn't acceptable. They made two changes. Just two. The cyclists have their own separate lane already, with their own traffic lights, and the timing was changed slightly so that the cyclists got a green a few seconds before the motor traffic. And secondly the stop lines for the motor traffic were moved back a few yards. Sounds simple doesn't it? This meant that the cyclists on the right were more visible, and a stream, a critical mass if you like, was created when the lights went green, meaning other traffic had no option other than to wait if it wanted to turn right.

And what was the effect of these two changes? Deaths on the intersection the following year were one. A 93% decrease with two changes. And when you think about it, 15 deaths out of 6.5-7 million cyclists per year was already a pretty low figure. Apparently each year around 150 cyclists die in Denmark as a whole, which sounds a lot, until you factor in the sheer numbers of Danes who are cycling, which in real terms makes Denmark one of the safest places in the world to cycle (along with Holland). And yet the intersection changes were seen as 'necessary'.

Thinking on it now as well I saw no metal barriers at road crossings for pedestrians. These are always installed here as 'safety' features, but if you look into transport planning they are actually there to regulate pedestrians so that they don't, simply can't, interfere with the forward progress of cars. Their function is to provide a single, narrow crossing point so that less of the road space has to be given over to pedestrians.

It's actually hard to list all of the things that they do that make life easier for pedestrians and cyclists. It wasn't always thus in Copenhagen, they did actually change attitudes and layouts, and it has lead to a situation where respect on the road is frankly remarkable. Mikael can remember one incident, one, with a van in 15 years of living in the city when it cut across in front of him at a junction. I get three of those a day, you ride expecting it. The infrastructuire changes can lead cultural changes that get to this point, but negativity is easy to lapse into, especially when the words and actions don't actually match up in Edinburgh.

The Council has spouted for a couple of years that it wants to be a 'Model Cycling City'. That's just laughable.

I still don't buy into the 'Culture of Fear' surrounding cycling, it's still a safe activity done properly (and there's a great book on the Culture of Fear that shows just how we got to this ridiculous state of being scared of everything round every corner, which has lead to products like the 'Thudguard' - please look it up), what actually bothers me more is a consistent lack of respect, and lack of realisation that we're all just people trying to get somewhere. That has an effect on society as a whole, not just cyclists on the road.

I'm happy to try and buck that trend. Who's with me?!?