Copenhagen has long been leading the world in citizen-pleasing infrastructure, and the city has yet again outdone itself. In June, it welcomed the Cykelslangen, or Cycle Snake, an elevated cyclist roadway over the harbor to ease congestion.

This road is the latest addition to one of the most bicycle-friendly city infrastructures in the world. In Copenhagen, more than 50 percent of residents ride their bicycles to work. Portland, Oregon, with the most bicycle commuters in the United States, clocks in at 6.1 percent. Credit those numbers to a culture that encourages cycling, but also to an infrastructure that does the same, with traffic lights timed for bicycle speeds, cobblestone paths with smoothed shoulders, and parking systems that position unoccupied cars as a buffer between cycle lanes and moving traffic. So many people cycle that it’s become a quaint issue to find parking for the two-wheelers.

Cykelslangen (pronounced soo-cool-klag-en) adds just 721 feet of length to the city's 220 miles of bicycle paths, but it relieves congestion by taking riders over instead of through a waterfront shopping area. "Underneath, there’s a harbor front, so there are slow moving-pedestrians," says Mikael Colville-Anderson, CEO of Copanhagenize, a Danish design company. "It wasn’t a smooth commute for the cyclists. The people on bikes want to get home and the pedestrians want to saunter." Pedestrian-cyclist conflict was never an issue, but cyclists couldn't pedal at a constant speed, and they had to deal with stairways. The new roadway, which runs one story above the ground, lets them move without interruption. At just over 13 feet wide, there's plenty of room to pass even a double-wide cargo bike.

DISSING+WEITLING

The Cykelslangen winds around the harbor front, in juxtaposition to the grid-like architecture of the area. This element of the design is, for all its beauty, purposeful. Bicycle roads have a maximum allowable gradient to prevent riders from picking up too much speed, and to allow riders on cargo bikes to ascend easily. Making it curved adds length so the elevation changes can be gradual. The project cost 32 million Danish krone ($5.74 million). It was designed by architecture firm DISSING+WEITLING and built by Ramboll Group, an engineering company.

On top of its practicality, Cykelslangen makes riding a bike more fun and enjoyable. "You can see the Danish facade crack and people smiling," Colville-Anderson says. "Even the driest city planners are saying, 'this is so cool.'" Riders who take Cykelslangen in the mid-afternoon during the summer get to see the daylight filter between two nearby buildings. When viewed from the harbor front below, pedestrians can watch riders flicker as they move along behind the guardrails. "It tickles all your senses," Colville-Anderson says.

Now the city just has to tackle a new problem: Youths who think it's fun to dive off the Cykelslangen into the harbor below.