Episode 04 - Safety Details - Top 10 Design Elements in Copenhagen's Bicycle Culture

Episode 04 in the series of Top 10 Design Elements that make Copenhagen a bicycle-friendly city.

It's in the details when you wish to keep cyclists safe and cycling convenient.

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Top 10 Bicycle-Friendly Design Elements in Copenhagen

Chapter 04: Safety details

We are creating a big picture of a bicycle friendly city

a modern city that accomodates bicycle traffic.

Its amazing to see the whole network to evolve, but its also fantastic to regard the tiny details,

small safety details. We like that incredibly inexpensive solution to do and it's had some really great results.

pushed back stop lines

One of the things the city has been doing recently over the last couple of years is pushing back the stop lines for cars

allowing the cycletrack to continue up to the pedestrian crossing. The cyclist is more visible, the mororist is aware:

"Oh, the cyclist is there, there might be more coming up from behind ".

pre-green for cyclists

Another important aspect is pre-greens, in the busy intersections the light turns green on the bicycle traffic light.

Anything from a half a second or two seconds since before the light turns green for the car or so.

The cyclists are in motion when the motorist realizes the light is green, and they are already visible.

rumble strips

What the city has done in some places is creating rumble strips in the paint that keep the cyclists of course on the straight narrows.

So they don't fear out in the traffic, which is nobody's' interest at all. But also for cars, so they don't enter into the bike lane.

There are also some unique situations, unique locations in Copanhagen, where for example the curb is much lower,

so there is a little thin strip of rumble strips to make sure the cyclists stay away from the curb.

right turn on red

Allowing right turns on red for cyclists will keep people safe, you know that.

Remove some cyclists around the corner, so there is a little more space for the other cyclists who are waiting for the red light.

It's just very important in a city like Copenhagen, with this many cyclists.

The automate solution its really creating a cycle track that completely has nothing to do with the car lanes or the intersection.

A cycle track that just curves to the right and does an automated right turn, tt eliminates completely the "right hook" problem.

bus stop islands

Situations in Copenhagen, where there is no space for a bus sign, the cyclist has to stop for the bus passengers who are getting off for the sidewalk.

And a lot of passengers getting off those buses want to get over to the sidewalk of course.

So the city of Copenhagen is implementing more more bus islands.

where the passengers of the bus get off on the little island and they have to cross the cycle track to get over to the sidewalk.

Since it has began being implemented in Copenhagen the number of bicycle-pedestrian or bicycle-bus passenger incidents has plummeted.

This has been an excellent solution and creates that important flow that momentum that A to B is for cyclists.

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