After spending a week in Copenhagen (Denmark), a couple days in Malmö (Sweden), and now being in Utrecht (Netherlands), we have experienced three very different systems of street design to make cycling the most convenient and efficient way of getting around for people aged 8 to 80.  What’s clear in all three places is that people are using the bike as a tool, not as an identity or a statement.  The cities are being retrofitted so it just makes sense to use the bike.  As a 19-year old from Utrecht told me yesterday when I pointed out a cafe-lined, bicycle and pedestrian oriented plaza in town used to be a car parking lot, “that would be a terrible use of space and so loud and dirty it would be awful”.  He wasn’t anti-car, but recognized that cars and city centers are generally an inefficient mix for everyone – those moving about and those businesses (retail and offices) that want their customers or workforce to access their locations quickly and easily (and without having to wast their own private land in providing car parking spaces!) find that cycling infrastructure ends up better for all.

In any case, presentations by city officials in Malmö and Utrecht helped me frame what we’ve been seeing:

• Malmö – city of 300,000 or so, transitioning to have an integrated and complete bicycle transportation network while navigating the difficult politics of change.  Their basic design approach is to use 2-way cycle tracks on one or both sides of the street.  Ideally on both sides, but sometimes the politics dictate one side for now.  The cycle tracks are often at the same level as sidewalks, but separated from cars with a curb.  Intersections get a bit more complicated with the cycle tracks having their own intersections alongside the car intersection with movements in all directions.  It works fine for now given the volume of people on bike and car, but city officials are beginning to think about making changes in the future as bicycle trip percentage continues to go up (currently around 30% of trips).  While many busy streets had very nice 2-way, separated cycle tracks, there were also many busy car streets that had no bicycle infrastructure at all, which was a significant departure from our Copenhagen experience.
• Copenhagen – city of 600,000 or so, very balanced street design with clear parts on every busy street for cyclists and other parts for drivers.  Smaller streets are basically bike accessible in both directions even if just one-way for car – there are usually little to no pavement markings to indicate this, but low volume, slow speed roads can easily handle people on bike in both directions with everyone navigating the shared space.  50%+ of trips are by bike.  The system on busier roads is generally a grade-separated cycle track – a wide lane slightly above the car level and slightly below the pedestrian level.  Most are purposefully built for two people to bike side by side and socialize, with enough room for a family cargo bike to pass as well.  They follow the idea that the bigger the street, the better the bicycle infrastructure better be. The general street design and rules of the road would be familiar to most visitors from the US – it’s actually relatively easy to begin biking in Copenhagen and understand how it all works within 15 minutes of following someone else on bike.  (The main difference is that there are tons of people on bike all the time and everywhere, so riding with a big group takes getting used to.  And is awesome!)
• Utrecht – city of 350,000 people or so, and has transitioned to favoring the bicycle (and transit) above cars.  Many streets are not ‘balanced’ like in Copenhagen, but are dominated by people on bike in both design and behavior.  For most of the city and on most of the streets, cars are guests.  About 60% of trips are by bike.  It’s a free flowing system where stopping is avoided.  The system is like a giant river of bicycles flowing around the city in all directions, moving around any object (like a river around a rock), whether that be a car, a tourist, or basically anything.  Biking is also like being in a school of fish – as you go straight with a large number of people, it is common for people coming from the left or right to merge in everywhere all the time.  The group sees what is going on and seamlessly makes small shifts – like a school of fish! – to accommodate the newcomer.  Joining in and peeling off and being the prioritized mode of travel makes the entire system extremely free flowing and convenient. See it in action: Flowing in Utrecht

So what does that mean for cities nowhere near the stature of these three?

• First – it is possible to get there!  These cities have been working on things for 40 years, succeeding and failing and improving and making mistakes.  What a gift to other cities – we have a roadmap and there are more things in commonality than difference, so dismissing these places as “Europe is not the United States” is just a lazy thing to say (like putting sharrows on busy roads or installing signs that say “bike lane ends”).  Dear US cities – take the gift that Copenhagen, Malmö, and Utrecht have given you and get to work!
• Housing and business and equity and environment and quality of life all are interrelated when designing a system for cycling is done in a serious way.  In each of these cities, there were fights over car parking and loss of business customers and every other excuse to do nothing – universally common issues when trying to change the status quo in transportation. Those complaints tend to ring hollow once changes are made, however, so while it can be important to listen to many community voices when repurposing street space to other uses, the loud status quo voices really need to be marginalized.
• For Eugene, a simple goal should be that every 10 year old in the city ought to be able to bike to the downtown library independently, safely, and comfortably.  (If not that, how about every 10 year old within 3 miles of their school ought to be able to bike independently, safely, and comfortably to school?) A city that can’t provide that is not living up to its best self.  The experience of the cities we’ve visited shows that when you can build a cycling infrastructure that meets that simple goal, benefits to environment, equity, housing, economics, and quality of life improve across the board.  Plus, building for cycling is significantly cheaper than continuing to build for the movement and storage of vehicles, objects that are not only household’s second largest expense, but things that are parked 95% of their life and only used at 20% occupancy on average.
• There are other thoughts, like finally eliminating all minimum parking requirements for motorized vehicles (in 2019 the government still requires private landowners to provide land for car parking?  Really?) and other things, but this blog is long enough for now.

Finally some pictures: Because of extremely high volume of cyclists (see image with rainbow crossing) and a robust intercity train system, Utrecht is almost finished with a new, underground bike-only parking garage with over 14,000 spaces.  It is 2/3 done and the finished parts are open (image below).  It is possible to bike to all four (?) levels, bike racks are double-decker with hydraulic assist mechanisms, there are indicators at the rows to show if there are empty parking spots available, and more.  This garage comes on the heals of another one, just completed a hundred yards away that has 4,000 spaces.  Both garages will not be able to handle the need, but they are a major way to free up local public places that had become de facto bike parking areas (and some will continue to be).

I forgot to take many pictures in Malmö (the problem with an experiential-based class is the tendency to focus too much on experiencing the environment rather than documenting it).  So the following image comes from a most amazing evening in Malmö.  Earlier in the day, Adam Beecham of Austin Adventures, who helps out the course with logistics and other things, suggested that the class hold a progressive dinner block party in honor of my 50th birthday.  Students overwhelmingly responded immediately and enthusiastically.  So that night, we all went room to room and ate a dish prepared by the students of the room.  We were staying at the “Oh Boy Hotel”, which is a bike-oriented place (check it out) and all our rooms were at street-level and facing the street, so we could have an inside-outside vibe at each room.  It was a very fun evening and it ended up being a great way to celebrate my 50th (although my family was not with me, which would have made it even better of course).