Copenhagen - directing and protecting cyclists in the city
/cyclists come out of nowhere, - going somewhere - gong there fast
In Copenhagen there are now long-distance bike routes through and across the city for fast and safe journeys where bikes are separated from motor vehicles but on the narrower streets, particularly in the old part of the city, that segregation is not always possible.
Streets that mix together cyclists and pedestrians but without cars are surprisingly successful though maybe it's not that surprising because many of the people walking are cyclists themselves. Most people here started riding bikes almost as soon as they started walking … or actually before they started walking if you count being in a child’s seat on the cross bar or in the box on the front of a Christiania with their parents pedalling. And, unlike tourists, locals appreciate that once a cyclist gets going, then the last thing they need is a pedestrian vaguely sauntering around with no real idea where they are going or someone who is so busy looking at their phone that they end up making cyclists swerve or stop.
Where there is no option and bikes have to share a road with fast moving cars or heavy traffic then there are marked cycle lanes.
Here, Store Kongensgade is a busy road but it’s a one-way street, so at least traffic and bikes are all going in the same direction. The road has a lot of cars and buses and commercial traffic and they can be moving fast because it's a main route into the city from the suburbs and towns along the coast to the north.
Here, the last time the road was resurfaced, the bike lane was made wider so faster cyclists can overtake slower bikes, but, and more important, a high kerb was formed between the bikes and the cars to stop cars parking on the lane and to stop them swerving into the cycle lane to get round a car turning left too slowly on the left side of the road.
This is the new surface across Gammel Strand in the centre of the city.
Here, the long triangular space was dug up when a new metro station was constructed. That was the opportunity to re plan the space. Cars can no longer drive through so the area of tables and chairs at restaurants along one side of the space can expand outwards but inevitably pedestrians start to saunter and take odd diagonal routes or stop suddenly and without warning. Bicycles have a sort of recommended route along the space that is defined by smooth stone setts rather than the rough setts of the rest of the area. Cyclists literally feel they are on the right line but I'm not convinced pedestrians are as quick to spot the difference.
post on Gammel Strand
At major junctions, particularly where there is heavy or fast-moving traffic, there are blue bicycle lanes across the roads. In part, these are to remind cyclists not to cut the corner but - and much much more important - they remind drivers of vehicles that if they are turning into a side or cross street then cyclists on the inside lane of the road have absolute priority when they are going straight on.
HC Andersens Boulevard is a fast road with heavy traffic from the main bridge over the harbour at Langebro, on up past the city hall and Tivoli to the lakes. Roads crossing this are also generally busy … here with Ny Kongensgade to the right and Niels Brooks Gade to the left and with Carlsberg Ny Glyptotek on the corner.
From above it is possible to see how feeder lanes towards the centre of the wide road have been marked out for traffic waiting to cross over in front of oncoming traffic, but this not only takes up a lot of road width but it also means that clear road markings and signs for cyclists are even more necessary to protect those cyclists.
So, here there are also white dashed lines on the edge of the blue lane to reinforce the fact that cars have to stop and check and give way to cyclists who in this situation are on their inside or what is called in the UK the driver’s blind side.
the pedestrian crossing at the north-east corner of Kongens Nytorv with the square to the left - in this view - Bredgade straight ahead and Nyhavn to the right
One of the more complicated junctions in the city where bikes and cars and pedestrians are all trying to do different things is at the north-east corner of Kongens Nytorv.
Or, at least, it's the place where I have heard, more than anywhere else, tourists taught choice Danish swear words by Danish cyclists,
The main road traffic going round the square is heavy but at least rational … it’s one way and all going anticlockwise. Some of the traffic that has come past the theatre and Charlottenborg Palace, turns left, here at these lights, to go across the front of the French Embassy - the elaborate palace in the photo - and then on up Gothersgade but most of the traffic carries straight on along Bredgade … a long and wide one-way street that takes traffic north out of the square. It’s the main road to Østerbro and then on back to those suburbs north along the coast. Store Kongensgade - the road bringing in traffic from the north (see above) comes in at the north-west corner of the square.
To the right of the photo - to the right of the sign to show vehicles cannot turn right - is the north quay of Nyhavn - one of the most popular tourist destinations in the city. People heading for Nyhavn tend to come from Strøget - the Walking Street - and walk across the central part of the square and that's all fine and they wait at the very wide pedestrian crossing to cross to Nyhavn and that's all fine except that many are chatting and are distracted or are looking across to the harbour ahead or looking at phones to check for details of the name of that restaurant that some app or other has recommended. They are vaguely aware of cars coming from their right and driving round the square on the normal side and in the normal direction but ……..
…. but virtually none of them realise that there is a very busy and fast bicycle lane that comes down Gothersgade - in the opposite direction to the vehicles following the one-way system out. Then, at the square (top right on the air view) the cycle route continues, between the road and the central area of the square, to the opposite corner at Bredgade. There are lights and two bike lanes marked and a narrow blue bicycle lane that lets anyone on a bike go straight over and then to turn to their left into Bredgade but most want to do something pedestrians don't expect …. so, if the lights are with them, cyclists, without slowing down much, can turn sharp right at the corner, still against the traffic, and then sharp left again to cross the road at the corner of Charlottenborg, to go down the south quay of Nyhavn to the new or newish cycle bridge - the inner harbour bridge to Christianshavn. And a lot of cyclists do and particularly when they are heading back from work to home in Christianshavn or Amager.
And you learn the swear words and see just how angry cyclists get - and quite justifiably - when tourists, anxious to get their drink or grub, either ignore the red man on the traffic light and try to cross but don’t look to their left or, and as bad, start to edge forward and crowd over on to the first part of the pedestrian crossing so they are standing on and blocking the cycle route cutting across left to right.
That's why the real message to all tourists would be to wait for the green man. You don't have to wait for long. Cyclists move fast and they are quiet - until they swear - and if cyclists, in retaliation, start to ignore red lights - or more ignore a red light than do now - then there really will be mayhem.
