‘It’s the best feeling’: how Copenhagen gave cyclists a green wave | Cycling

“Hitting a inexperienced wave? It’s one of the best feeling, particularly whenever you’re in a rush,” says actor Samuel Traum, unlocking his bike by a Copenhagen intersection thronged by two-wheeled commuters. “The alternative, a purple wave, is the worst.”For these of us who don’t reside in cycle-friendly Copenhagen, the inexperienced wave that Traum describes is a system began by town authorities 16 years in the past: so as to encourage bike journey, they synchronised site visitors lights on a number of key roads so {that a} rush-hour bicycle owner travelling at about 20km/h (12.4mph) may catch inexperienced lights all the way in which.Inexperienced waves are actually set to unfold to fifteen extra routes after the municipality authorized new biking provisions within the finances this month.“The thought is sweet as a result of often the lights are set on the velocity of the automobiles,” says Lars, a 33-year-old analyst biking down Nørrebrogade, the place the primary pilot challenge started. “I want it could be expanded.”Cyclists Freja Ungermand and Samuel Traum. {Photograph}: Ajit Niranjan/The GuardianLike many cities in Europe, Copenhagen grew to become a metropolis of automobiles after the second world struggle. Within the Nineteen Seventies, nevertheless, it started to battle again towards the site visitors with large bike protests that pushed the municipality to construct an enormous community of cycle lanes. If each metropolis had as many, a research present in June, the overall carbon dioxide emissions from personal automobiles would fall by 6%.However officers admit that even Copenhagen is struggling to chop automobile use amongst those that journey into town from outdoors. The development of cycle superhighways has helped commuters attain the outskirts by bike, however purple lights sluggish them down once they attain the streets. It’s right here that transport planners hope inexperienced waves will assist.“It’s so vital to have the liberty on a motorbike to simply journey alongside at a great velocity,” says Line Barfod, the mayor for know-how and setting, who zips down Nørrebrogade each day on her strategy to metropolis corridor and argues that extra inexperienced waves will encourage individuals to ditch their automobiles. “You possibly can really feel town needs you – and helps you – happening a motorbike.”The enlargement of the site visitors gentle tweak has confronted little political pushback and residents who’ve skilled inexperienced waves communicate glowingly of them. Barfod says: “The struggle between automobiles and bikes is extra on parking areas than altering speeds.”However at peak hours, native individuals say, Copenhagen’s biking tradition has grow to be a sufferer of its personal success. The lanes are too busy to get pleasure from an unbroken inexperienced wave, says Pia, a 65-year-old fundraiser who comes into town by practice and cycles dwelling. “Typically it’s so crowded you received’t make it to the subsequent gentle in time.”Lars, who often cycles too quick to journey the wave himself, thinks town is reaching a tough trade-off level. “We’re at a degree now the place we have to select between automobiles and cycles. When you give cycles more room, it’s going to compromise with the power of drivers to entry completely different areas.”Copenhagen is up towards Amsterdam for the title of Europe’s biking capital, however different massive cities similar to Paris and London are beginning to catch up. The municipality scored poorly in a latest rating of child-friendly biking on the share of roads with 30km/h velocity limits, although it has begun so as to add extra.skip previous e-newsletter promotionThe planet’s most vital tales. Get all of the week’s setting information – the great, the dangerous and the essentialPrivacy Discover: Newsletters could include details about charities, on-line advertisements, and content material funded by outdoors events. When you shouldn’t have an account, we’ll create a visitor account for you on theguardian.com to ship you this text. You possibly can full full registration at any time. For extra details about how we use your information see our Privateness Coverage. We use Google reCaptcha to guard our web site and the Google Privateness Coverage and Phrases of Service apply.after e-newsletter promotionPeople journey bicycles in Copenhagen. {Photograph}: Sopa Pictures/LightRocket/Getty ImagesIts newly authorized 602m Danish kroner (£70.5m) biking bundle, which is able to enhance the inexperienced waves and enhance the stream of cyclists at rush hour, can even search to construct the nation’s longest biking bridge and enhance lighting on bike lanes. Town has put in 19 “bicycle barometers” to grasp how briskly cyclists transfer, and – as soon as it has a greater thought of town’s pulse – plans to time inexperienced waves to start out when giant numbers of bikes arrive firstly of a hall.Such programs can enhance bike site visitors stream, says Gernot Sieg, a transport scientist on the College of Münster in Germany, however aren’t but widespread, partly as a result of cyclists typically journey at completely different speeds. In some Dutch cities, similar to Enschede, site visitors lights have extra refined programs that detect incoming cyclists and prioritise them when turning inexperienced.Better of all are biking highways that don’t work together with automobiles in any respect, says Sieg. “It’s a greater thought to make bike lanes the place you don’t must cross streets.”Getting individuals out of automobiles and transferring their our bodies is an efficient strategy to save lives and shield the planet. About 20,000 individuals are killed on EU roads annually, and beneficial properties from higher security requirements are being threatened by a growth in massive automobiles that pack extra punch once they hit a human physique.In cities, the poisonous particles that automobiles spew when burning petrol and crunching tyres on tarmac have fuelled additional frustration with car-centric planning.For Leena Ylä-Mononen, who moved to Copenhagen from Helsinki two years in the past to guide the European Setting Company, town is an instance of what others can obtain – even when it may appear scary. It took her 5 months earlier than she dared to get on her bike and cycle down lanes filled with so many individuals transferring so quick.“To get into the stream took me a while – but it surely actually is essentially the most comfy strategy to transfer round,” says Ylä-Mononen. “In fact, it’s additionally as a result of it’s a flat metropolis with not many hills. However we’ve got wind, so you continue to must pedal onerous.”