Cities
07.03.16
København
Copenhagen has a new piece of bicycle infrastructure. The so-called “Cykelslangen”, the “Bicycle Snake”, is a cycle superhighway that increases the ease and efficiency of daily commutes in the city.
The Bicycle Snake is heavily used day and night and evokes a freedom of speed for the cyclists. It also allows a glimpse into the various characteristics of Copenhagen.
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Copenhagen has a new piece of bicycle infrastructure. The city planners designed the so-called ‘Cykelslangen,’ the ‘Bicycle Snake,’ as a cycle superhighway that increases the ease and efficiency of daily commutes in the city. It not only marks another step in Copenhagen’s vision of becoming an eco-metropolis, it also allows a glimpse into the complex structure of a modern city.
One of Copenhagen’s latest infrastructural gems sits between a clumsy urban mall and a sleek hotel, sweeping from a highway overpass down to the harbor front.
The Copenhagen Cykelslangen, also known as the “Bicycle Snake,” is a 280-meter-long bicycle bridge that connects a busy highway overpass to a car-free harbor front. City developers opened this striking structure in 2014, allowing cyclists to glide smoothly from an elevated position down to ground level, thereby enhancing their commuting experience. The structure exemplifies Copenhagen’s commitment to promoting cycling and sustainable urban mobility.
The Bicycle Snake: Life between buildings
The Bicycle Snake measures 5.5 meters above ground level at its highest point, and resting on elegant, evenly spaced white pilotis. The bridge has replaced what was previously an uncomfortable bicycle trek down two flights of stairs, followed by a slow, cautious ride through crowded pedestrian plazas. Now, in less than one minute, cyclists glide along the gentle curvature of the striking orange-covered cycle bridge between buildings and over water to the harbor.
Cyclists use the bridge day and night. It cultivates a human dimension in an otherwise awkward and soulless configuration of looming concrete and glass structures along Copenhagen’s harbor front. Danish urbanist Jan Gehl’s vision of multi-use, human-scale ‘life between buildings’ manifests almost perfectly on the Cykelslangen. The path leads the cyclists to a pedestrian square, which offers space for movement, sitting, and the opportunity to be watched both from above and below.
The new design aligns with the vision of a green city and proves that the city can actually deliver on its promise of being carbon-free by 2025. Copenhagen has transformed this vision into an internationally renowned green-city brand, earning the titles of European Green Capital (2014) and the world’s most livable city by Monocle (2014). One delightful ride down the Bicycle Snake authenticates that this green-city brand lives on in the space between buildings.
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“Cykelslangen”: Cycle Superhighways
The designers of Copenhagen’s Bicycle Snake created a highly functional and visually appealing piece of bicycle infrastructure that elevates cyclists above ground-level traffic. The design team aimed to enhance the ease and efficiency of daily commutes in the city, thereby reflecting Copenhagen’s status as one of the world’s leading bicycle cities. With its elegant curves and integration into the urban landscape, the bridge exemplifies the city’s commitment to sustainable transportation. The Bicycle Snake aligns with the city of Copenhagen’s vision to become an eco-metropolis, or a city of cyclists for cyclists. Copenhagen ambitiously aimed to have 50 percent of all citizens commute by bike by 2015, with 90 percent of all cyclists perceiving a sense of safety while cycling.
Although the city has yet to reach its desired number of bicycle commuters (37 percent, at last count), Copenhagen has achieved what many cities never will by designing and implementing an infrastructural grid of strictly separated bicycle lanes and paths, ensuring a high degree of safety and speediness. The city and surrounding municipalities are actively developing a network of so-called supercykelstier, or ‘cycle superhighways’. City planners designed this initiative to make cycling a genuine alternative to carbon-heavy modes of transportation for everyday use. It seeks to enhance the practicality of biking even over longer distances.
Liberation of the cyclist
Cyclists can now ride along a cycle superhighway that connects the city center with suburbs up to 20 kilometers away. The development of this infrastructure has addressed many obstacles that typically make biking slow, laborious, and unsafe in urban environments. As a result, cycling has become a more efficient and secure mode of transportation for commuters. Instead, city planners provide cyclists with the possibility to move swiftly, safely, and independently of the general congestion along ‘green routes’ of often picturesque quality.
Apart from cultivating a vision of a carbon-neutral daily-commuter culture in dense urban areas, and while the potential health benefits for the individual are to be taken seriously. The cycle superhighways create a curiously autonomous space for solitary bike travel, placing cyclists in an independent biking experience. Cyclists plug in their earphones and swoosh towards the city center at high speed, experiencing an extreme liberation from the messy mélange of everyday urban traffic situations thanks to the cycle superhighways.
Read more in Topos 94 – City Visions.
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