While Streetfilms was in Copenhagen for the Velo-City 2010 conference, of course we wanted to showcase its biking greatness. But we were also looking to take a different perspective then all the myriad other videos out there. Since there were an abundance of advocates, planners, and city transportation officials attending from the U.S. and Canada, we thought it'd be awesome to get their reactions to the city's built environment and compare to bicycling conditions in their own cities.

If you've never seen footage of the Copenhagen people riding bikes during rush hour - get ready - it's quite a site, as nearly 38% of all transportation trips in Copenhagen are done by bike. With plenty of safe, bicycle infrastructure (including hundreds of miles of physically separated cycletracks) its no wonder that you see all kinds of people on bikes everywhere. 55% of all riders are female, and you see kids as young as 3 or 4 riding with packs of adults.

Much thanks to the nearly two dozen folks who talked to us for this piece. You'll hear astute reflections from folks like Jeff Mapes (author of "Pedaling Revolution"), Martha Roskowski (Program Manager, GO Boulder), Andy Clarke (President, League of American Bicyclists), Andy Thornley (Program Director, San Francisco Bike Coalition) and Tim Blumenthal (President, Bikes Belong) and Yvonne Bambrick (Executive Director, Toronto's Cyclists Union) just to name drop a few of the megastars.



<blockquote class="_text"> [intro music] </blockquote> <blockquote class="speaker_1_text"> <cite class="speaker_1" >Yvonne Bambrick:</cite> [0:26] Copenhagen is best-case scenario for bicycles. They have properly integrated bicycles into the transportation fabric. </blockquote> <blockquote class="speaker_2_text"> <cite class="speaker_2" >Felicia Williams:</cite> [0:31] I think one of the main things is the separated bike lanes because it makes people feel safer. </blockquote> <blockquote class="speaker_3_text"> <cite class="speaker_3" >Andy Thornley :</cite> [0:35] And everywhere you go you have a sense of a very humane and human city. </blockquote> <blockquote class="speaker_4_text"> <cite class="speaker_4" >Nicole Jensen:</cite> [0:40] And the people here, it's just part of their daily lives to cycle and I just find that so amazing.</p><p>[music] </p><p>[crowd crosstalk] [0:43] </blockquote> <blockquote class="speaker_5_text"> <cite class="speaker_5" >Andy Clarke:</cite> [1:05] The fact that there are around about 100 people here from North America from the U. S. and Canada I think is cause for optimism because I think one of the things we've lacked in the U. S. is the real belief that this stuff actually works, that we've been making it up and saying Copenhagen's like this. But until you really see it, touch it, and feel it for yourself and you ride the streets of Copenhagen during rush hour, it's really hard to believe. </blockquote> <blockquote class="speaker_6_text"> <cite class="speaker_6" >Martha Roskowski:</cite> [1:28] They have created a system where every single road works for bicycling. Some of them are quiet streets where you just ride right on the street. Some of them they have painted bike lanes. But more often they have cycle tracks, which are these elevated bike paths. It's only two or three inches of elevation with a little bit of curb and some asphalt filled in, but the difference that it makes is really profound. </blockquote> <blockquote class="speaker_7_text"> <cite class="speaker_7" >Leah Shahum:</cite> [1:53] They've really made safe facilities, comfortable facilities, facilities that are welcoming for people of all skill levels. What you do have is a lot of cargo bikes that are often moving slower. You've got a mom or dad pedaling one, two, sometimes three. I've seen children in the cargo bikes. That slow speed is not only accommodated, but it's almost celebrated. </blockquote> <blockquote class="speaker_8_text"> <cite class="speaker_8" >Peter Furth:</cite> [2:12] A lot of times in the U. S. when you're riding your bike, you feel almost like an outlaw. You feel like, "Oh, can I just find a little tiny bit of space for myself?" Here, you feel like they're just laying out the red carpet for you. </blockquote> <blockquote class="speaker_9_text"> <cite class="speaker_9" >Jeff Mapes:</cite> [2:25] In American cities when you come to a really busy street, that's when you really tense up and you wonder, "Can I get across this street?" When you come to a busy street in Copenhagen, you say, "Oh, good! I know I'm going to find a cycle track here, and it's going to be a quick route. I'm going to be where I need to be in five minutes." I mean what a difference from just about any place else that I've been!"</p><p>[music] </blockquote> <blockquote class="speaker_10_text"> <cite class="speaker_10" >Jackie Douglas:</cite> [2:54] I love the counters on the side of the road. It makes you feel like you should be on the road, that it's OK to be here. You don't feel like anyone's going to tell you to get out of the way. </blockquote> <blockquote class="speaker_11_text"> <cite class="speaker_11" >Klaus Grimar:</cite> [3:05] We're here standing in Copenhagen at NÃƒÂƒÃƒÂ‚Ã‚Â¸rrebrogade. And NÃƒÂƒÃƒÂ‚Ã‚Â¸rrebrogade is the busiest street for cycling in Copenhagen. Last year we put this machine up. There's now 36, 000 cyclists per day in this street. </blockquote> <blockquote class="speaker_12_text"> <cite class="speaker_12" >Andy Clarke:</cite> [3:18] To stand and see a couple hundred cyclists go through an intersection, and then realize that just a block away there's another hundred coming, it's a phenomenal experience. </blockquote> <blockquote class="speaker_13_text"> <cite class="speaker_13" >Yvonne Bambrick:</cite> [3:28] We went by the counter last night, and I was cyclist 10,361. That is amazing! It is just feels really empowering to know what's possible. </blockquote> <blockquote class="speaker_14_text"> <cite class="speaker_14" >Andreas Rohl:</cite> [3:39] In Copenhagen it's mainstream to go on a bicycle. It's everybody. It's all incomes. It's all age groups. It's both female and male, so that means the average cyclist is a pretty-well [inaudible] person.</p><p>[music] </blockquote> <blockquote class="speaker_15_text"> <cite class="speaker_15" >Leah Shahum:</cite> [4:02] I've from some of the Copenhageners that it's 55 percent women biking here in the city, which is really impressive and it feels like that. </blockquote> <blockquote class="speaker_16_text"> <cite class="speaker_16" >Felicia Williams:</cite> [4:09] One of the main things is the separated bike lanes because it makes people feel safer, and the slow speeds of cars also makes people feel safer with their kids. You see just like these buckets o' kids. </blockquote> <blockquote class="speaker_17_text"> <cite class="speaker_17" >Nicole Jensen:</cite> [4:19] The cargo bikes, you're child's in the front with you. You can put your groceries in there, just total utilitarian everyday kind of stuff. Why wouldn't you ride? Why wouldn't women and children ride here? It just seems so practical and so obvious. </blockquote> <blockquote class="speaker_18_text"> <cite class="speaker_18" >Martha Roskowski:</cite> [4:33] You see these women wearing skirts, dresses, and high heels, and just pedaling around. They obviously feel comfortable taking their kids on bicycles. </blockquote> <blockquote class="speaker_19_text"> <cite class="speaker_19" >Tim Blumenthal:</cite> [4:41] One thing that I've noticed here are a lot of really little bikes. They're like four-year-old kids. They ride a straight line, and they're super on it and ride better than most American adults. </blockquote> <blockquote class="speaker_20_text"> <cite class="speaker_20" >Mikael Colville-Andersen:</cite> [4:53] The kids have training at schools in the third grade and again in the ninth grade. They have to do proficiency tests on the bike lane signaling and all that stuff. My son who's eight was riding on the bike lanes to Kindergarten with me or to daycare when he was three and a half with his training wheels riding along. It's just the way it is. You have to. It's a practical solution. The kids have to start riding so you can get around the city.</p><p>[music] </blockquote> <blockquote class="speaker_21_text"> <cite class="speaker_21" >Peter Furth:</cite> [5:25] The drivers get tamed. That's my expression, they get tamed. They look before crossing. Lots of intersections I've seen, a car wants to turn right and just sits there waiting while four, five, six bikes go by, and then, when the coast is clear, then they make their right turn.</p><p>[5:42] Drivers are so comfortable and familiar with what to do around cyclists that even when you remove all the infrastructure, in the sense that you're on a street without any bike infrastructure, you still feel very safe. </blockquote> <blockquote class="speaker_22_text"> <cite class="speaker_22" >Felicia Williams:</cite> [5:53] There is sort of a driver education component, but the speeds are basically what do it. I think that's what brings people down, and people being accustomed to cyclists in general. </blockquote> <blockquote class="speaker_23_text"> <cite class="speaker_23" >Mikael Colville-Andersen:</cite> [6:02] We trust them on such a fantastic level because that lady, or that guy in the car, they've got a bike at home. They were on the bike lanes when they were five years old, six years old, so we understand each other. We're all cyclists. </blockquote> <blockquote class="speaker_24_text"> <cite class="speaker_24" >Tim Blumenthal:</cite> [6:14] The more people ride, the more the motorists expect to see cyclists out there, the safer it becomes. There is safety in numbers. </blockquote> <blockquote class="speaker_25_text"> <cite class="speaker_25" >Ida Auken:</cite> [6:22] It's just a different brought up with this. I didn't think about all of this until I went to New York, for instance. That's when I really became aware of what we do here in Copenhagen, that biking is just part of our life.</p><p>[music] </blockquote> <blockquote class="speaker_26_text"> <cite class="speaker_26" >Jackie Douglas:</cite> [6:46] I've never once had to lift up my bicycle. There's ramps at every stairwell. There's places to put your bicycle. Lovely. </blockquote> <blockquote class="speaker_27_text"> <cite class="speaker_27" >Jeff Mapes:</cite> [6:55] One of the things that... Just is an incredible feeling of freedom here is to roll up to your apartment, or store, or restaurant. You slip your key into that simple little back tire lock, click it, pull the key out, and walk away. No wrapping a chain around a tree or a pole. It makes even shorter bicycle trips more possible. </blockquote> <blockquote class="speaker_28_text"> <cite class="speaker_28" >Andy Thornley:</cite> [7:23] It's very impressive to see the special infrastructure, the special traffic treatments, the little tiny turn pockets, the traffic signalization. We have the Green Wave here, the signal timing that supports a continuous and comfortable bicycle movement. </blockquote> <blockquote class="speaker_29_text"> <cite class="speaker_29" >Andreas Rohl:</cite> [7:38] You have a Green Wave adjusted for the speed of the bicycle instead of to the speed of a car. So we have, for example, a stretch where you can pass. If you travel at 20 kilometers per hour, then you can pass. I think it's 14 traffic lights. They'll all be green for you. </blockquote> <blockquote class="speaker_30_text"> <cite class="speaker_30" >Tim Blumenthal:</cite> [7:54] Wherever they're doing construction, road construction, they always drop down these temporary asphalt ramps, so that... Even if it's just working on it for half a day, or a couple hours, you never have a curb where you approach. There always will be a transition. </blockquote> <blockquote class="speaker_31_text"> <cite class="speaker_31" >Ida Auken:</cite> [8:11] This is the Danish Parliament, where I work. One of our big victories in recent years was we got about 10, 15 parking lots shoved down and turned into bike parking. Every morning you'll see Parliamentarians. You'll see all the people working in the Parliament coming with their bikes, placing them in front of the Parliament.</p><p>This is the most beautiful, wonderful bike city in the whole world. </p><p>[music] </blockquote> <blockquote class="speaker_32_text"> <cite class="speaker_32" >Jeff Mapes:</cite> [8:45] Too much, in the United States, there's a feeling of the other. That somebody on a bicycle, that's not me. That's some different kind of creature. Here, it's very clear. A person on a cycle, that's just me using a different mode of transportation. </blockquote> <blockquote class="speaker_33_text"> <cite class="speaker_33" >Martha Roskowski:</cite> [8:59] Copenhagen has hit some point of transformation where bicycling is cheaper, easier, quicker, perhaps safer than any other mode of transportation. And so, it's just what people do. </blockquote> <blockquote class="speaker_34_text"> <cite class="speaker_34" >Leah Shahum:</cite> [9:12] I think if we can succeed in making our streets back home safe and welcoming for moms, for parents bringing their children out, we will have succeeded. </blockquote> <blockquote class="speaker_35_text"> <cite class="speaker_35" >Andy Clarke:</cite> [9:22] The painted bike lane is great for the committed and enthusiastic cyclist, but for the next big swath of the population, that isn't going to be enough. </blockquote> <blockquote class="speaker_36_text"> <cite class="speaker_36" >Andy Thornley:</cite> [9:31] We need to find a way to give bicycle riders a place that's comfortable, and inviting, and has a sense of safety. We don't have that yet. So, we need to move on that, and we need to accompany it with promotion, and education, and explanations. </blockquote> <blockquote class="speaker_37_text"> <cite class="speaker_37" >Andy Clarke:</cite> [9:44] We could do this fairly easily and fairly inexpensively in just about any US city. The only thing that we would need to do is have the will and the political power to squeeze the cars a bit.</p><p>[9:56] We like to say, just to put people at ease, that Copenhagen didn't do it overnight. It took 40 years to get where they are today. We don't have the luxury of waiting 40 years to get to that point in US cities. We have to do it a lot more quickly. </blockquote> <blockquote class="speaker_38_text"> <cite class="speaker_38" >Jan Gehl:</cite> [10:09] To me, it is fantastic to be in a city where every morning when you wake up, you have the feeling that the city is a little bit better than it was yesterday. It's remarkable to have that feeling every morning for forty fifty years. That is the case in Copenhagen.</p><p>[music] </p><p>[10:28] </blockquote> <br/><br/>