Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
commuting employees. In cities such as Copenhagen and Amsterdam over a third
of people commute to work or school by bicycle, with the former city hoping to
raise the amount to 50 % by 2015. Although this may seem to be an old and persist-
ing tradition in these countries with flat terrain the number of cyclists had actually
decreased drastically by the 1970s in Copenhagen as car use increased, leading to
massive congestion, especially in the old city centre with narrow roads. Citizen
action groups rejected the initial choice of new roads across the lakes and parks
that ring the old city and are shown in Fig.
6.2
. Together with the growing envi-
ronmental movement they convinced city governments to create dedicated bicycle
routes along major routes in the city from the early 1980s, aided by concern over
the increased price and availability of vehicle fuel. In Copenhagen these lanes are
constantly being extended, while an additional Green Route system of 22 segre-
gated bicycle ways, amounting to over 110 km through parks and residential areas,
was started in 2000 and was half way to achieving its goal by 2013. In addition
the first of a so-called Cycle Superhighway, a 22 km segregated bike-only route to
the city from Albertslund, was opened in 2013, the first of a planned series of 26
similar routes to the suburbs and surrounding towns (CPH
2012
). Nearby M￤lmo
in Sweden has even more dedicated cycle lanes, a total of over 500 km, and all are
two way lanes and separated from the car traffic by a divider. This has drastically
reduced accidents, and bicycles now account for a quarter of all journeys in this
city of 300 thousand people, with the city allocating $ 61 million for 2012-19 on
various cycling initiatives to increase this proportion. By contrast only 10% of
vehicle trips in Stockholm are made by bicycles.
In many cites a system of low-cost or even free bicycle rentals with many drop-
off and pick up points have been added, especially for tourist use. Although there
are signs of progress in promoting this form of transport in the developed world
it may be noted that this alternative opportunity is being lost in many cities in the
developing world, where the adoption of the western-type modernizing approaches
of the 1960s and 1970s has been favoured, leading to greater congestion and pollu-
tion. So the opportunity to re-plan cities on the more sustainable principles is being
lost, especially in Beijing where a 'city of bicycles' in the 1990s has been replaced
by congested car traffic, although the new rapid transit systems and restrictions
on car use may help reduce the problem. Although there are examples of other
bicycle-friendly solutions being developed in some cities—such as the Ciclo Ruta
in Bogota, one of the C40 group (C40
2013
)—the unruly nature of traffic behaviour
in many developing countries, noted in the review of traffic accidents in the Healthy
City chapter, does not hold much hope for a peaceful co-existence between vehicles
and bicycles, unless more road safety measures are adopted and dedicated bicycle
lanes are provided.
In addition to these main polices, a range of alternative measures have been ad-
opted by cities to reduce car use, which are summarized in Table
6.2
in three catego-
ries other than the mainly direct intervention approaches described above, namely:
land use measures; disincentives to use cars or incentives to use other transport;
or persuasion by government. Many cities use combinations of these approaches
to reduce the use of cars, which then decreases fuel consumption and the size of
