The Man Behind Copenhagenization

He is making space for your bike. He's also making it easier for you to commute by bicycle. And he is thinking up ways of making it safer. Meet Mikael Colville-Andersen.
Mikael is the man behind the copenhagenize.eu website. Yet as he himself explains, he is not some sort of eco-warrior: " Environmentalism is the biggest marketing bubble in the history of mankind. Just start saving the planet now! I couldn't give a monkey’s about that. Cycling is not about saving the planet, it's just the fastest way of getting from A to B," says he.
We interviewed Mikael during our stay in Copenhagen. And found his thoughts interesting. In fact, it would be a shame to edit the interview. Watch the full interview and let us know what your opinion on Copenhagenize is!
ABOUT WLC: WeLoveCycling.com is a new online magazine that brings you original stories, fresh videos and special reports from the wide world of cycling.
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[@A7Xtreme2010]

Say what you will about Mikael. But the guy is passionate about what he does and he knows his stuff.

[@dalewildey4102]

I wish this guy would come to Saskatoon Saskatchewan Canada and plan some infrastructure here. Our city is so backwards as far as active transport goes. We need change

[@maurelp]

Mikael is an excellent ambassador to Copenhagen internationally!

[@GilSotero]

Here in Brazil we dont have a good public transport. We have many cars and many deaths because of them. Bicycles can not save the world but can save lives in sick brazilian cities! Roadkill is already the leanding cause of death for children 1 to 14 years here. I liked the interview!

[@DistributistHound]

In my opinion is not only about efficiency but without pointing this out directly, bicycle commuting is possibly the most sustainable way to commute available except when you walk of course. Things like the environment, the economy and others in order to improve them, you need to fight for them specially in developing countries. Great work Mr. Colville! The humble opinion of a Mexican.

[@basslife3359]

we need that here in Miami Florida thank you for sharing such a great video God Bless....

[@alexperience7studio769]

Great job! I hope some day Madrid looks like Copenhagen, not only about the bikes... Thanks4all.

[@FrancescaLD]

He's my hero.

[@suesaihara]

Even in Sao Paulo with an aggressive car traffic people are starting to ride bike, infrastructure is still not so attractive just few bike lines but it's a start.

[@andreas51107]

For cities the best traffic solution is public transportation and bicycle riding because saving energy, not polluting air, environmentally friendly, and its quick, fast, rapid,smart. car traffic is waste of space and air pollution

[@drew031127]

In the US people think you have multiple DUI's if you're on a bike. In my opinion, though, "car dependency" has become a real crisis and it's hard to convince people of it and I'm sure I come off as arrogant or sanctimonious at times. I will definitely change my approach.

[@holgerjrgensen2166]

I'm 66, born in the center of CPH, cycled since I was six, seen the development, from the trams and cyclist all over to the cars all over. Since early I'd see how the cyclist got pushed to the side, mishandled, suffering. No improvement, no maintainance, no investments, I got more and more obsessed with the need of a 'modern traffic structure'. Sended swarms of letters to all I could think about, mostly city-administration, vent to lots of meetings. In the 90's Danish Cycle Federation, held a very large demonstration, but it doesn't moved a single cent at the budget, CPH-adm. send out a pamflet, On Bicycle for the Future, but no effect could be measured. I desided to take part in the City-election, 01. 05. and 09. Cykel Logisk Institut. (Cycle Logical Institute) In 04. I'd made an cycle exhibition at the CPH townhall, ' Den Moderne Transport struktur' (The Modern Transport Structure) with pictures from far more than 200 cities in 80 countries that I've visited, and a blend of special or different bicycles, and more. All the traditional parties were also appealing to the voters, as 60% used bicycles, so after my appearance the cycle budget doubbled many times, and the whole 'thing' got a enormous attention, an avalance in motion, DCF modernized their structure, also wanted to present their wishes in the parliament, as I did, wich resulted in a billion-fond to pay 60 % of local cycle investment. The city-adm. changed pracsis according to receive and answer letters, the international attention resulted in the Danish Cycle Embassy, and opened the doors for Mikael Colville's activities. I'd introduced 'The CPH Cycle Mayor' as had become a international title. I'd forced the traffic mayor and transportminister to invest in a Comfortometer to measure the comfort on the cycle-path. There is a building, where you can go all the way up to twelve floor on bike. We got about 100 new bridges in CPH. Well, this and much more, I did it mostly alone, spend all my money and time, and it is a great satisfaction to see, that the world had become Cykel Logisk Institut, even there is still much more to improve, cycle infra structure had become a billion dollar industry. CPH Cycle Mayor Holger the 1'st

[@fishingoliver]

I love my town. Copenhagen for the win!

[@welovecycling]

+Urban Productions Many thanks. We love it too.

[@casparharte]

There is an amazing international net work connecting every place on earth, its called roads, and that is the best place to ride a bike.... however there are too many motorists who don't want to share this resource, even thou we all pay for roads out of central government tax.

[@HelenaRG71]

+caspar harte Experiences show that sharing the road with distracted car drivers and huge lorries is just not safe. Only young men in lycra and helmet dressed in highVis will be bold enough to drive on such roads. The goal should be like in the Netherlands: cycling should be possible for everyone from 8 to 80. That will not happen if you see your children next to a lorry in a roundabout. Of course, if you feel safe to bike on the road, feel free - but if we want common people to cycle, first they have to feel safe. Sharing the road works if the cars are very slow, in the Netherlands they have lanes on the same roads only in 30-km/h-areas.

[@weenisw]

+caspar harte Vehicles on roads damage them at an exponentially increasing rate as vehicle weight goes up. This means semi-trucks and then SUVs and pickups do the most damage and bicycles do an imperceptible amount. Therefore larger vehicles should pay exponentially more to use the roads they're constantly destroying.

[@marcvanderwee]

+HelenaRG71: What you write about our cycle infrastructure concerning roadsharing is not totally correct. We also have 50 km/h with cycle lanes, but usually within the citylimits, where space is scarse. But that is safe as well, the cyclists bring down the speed of cars, and the drivers are polite and carefully towards cyclists. And in the rural areas there are 60 km/h roads with roadsharing as well. Roadsharing on a 80 km/h road is rare, but at (litterally!) 500 m/550 yards from my house there is such a road. With 1 cyclist per hour... ;-)

[@gnawershreth]

He's right about the city designing stuff but that's about it. He is extremely Copenhagen centered and seems clueless about everything else. People outside Copenhagen don't get cars because they're cool or because people live in the past etc. They get cars because they're needed. All this focus on Copenhagen and other cities in Denmark is a fine place to start but it does mean that other towns and smaller cities are pretty much being ignored. They make cycling paths along highways etc. all over the country but if you have 40 km to work that's not really comparable to living in Copenhagen. Until we see a public transport "revolution" as well, people will continue buying cars. They have no choice. Public transport is horrific outside the major cities and have only gotten worse in recent years. There's no hope in hell of cycling taking over in more rural areas. The only options are cars and public transportation.

[@jonahmoormeister635]

Or just buy a Velomobil

[@Mikolaj_u]

+Gnawer Shreth 40km to work? Travel 80km 5 days a week? Jeez, talk about life-wasting.

[@gnawershreth]

+Mikolaj1406 Time wasting? What are you on about? If people live in a certain place that they really like and end up getting fired, or just want to try a different kind of job or whatever, that job may be some distance from their home. You think people just decide to sell their dream home (Which can often take a year or more anyway..), pull their kids out of school and away from their friends, leave all their own friends in the place they live etc. because they got a job in a different city?

[@Mikolaj_u]

So a dream house you barely live in, kids you barely see and on top of that you sound all jumpy and stressed. No, thanks xD

[@ruyveng]

You're missing the point. He's not judging people for driving cars, he's judging cities that do nothing to provide people with the alternative. There will always be cars in cities probably, but there's a difference between driving 40km to work (which is probably doable with the train, but whatev) and driving 3km to work. On the other hand there are cities with great bicycle infrastructure, like the one I live in in Poland, which is 5km one end to the other, and people still drive like mad. That's just being stupid.

[@martynfromnl]

I like this guy and certainly his aim to make cycling infrastructure mainstream across the world. However his commentary about Dutch cycling infrastructure is nonsense. A two-way bike path is not more dangerous, as long as they are wide enough. In general, this happens in the Netherlands. These are the minimum width of a two-way bike path in NL: - For low traffic intensity during peak hours: 2.00m. - For medium traffic intensity during peak hours: 2.50m. - 3.00m. - For a lot of traffic intensity during the peak hours: 3.50 - 4.00m. (You need to add 0.50m. if there are also mopeds allowed, mainly outside the built-up area.) Also, Amsterdam is bigger than the canal belt (inner city), so there are also modern parts of the city with good bicycle infrastructure. And if you can not imagine your city in Amsterdam? Then go to Rotterdam or Eindhoven or any other city, town or village in The Netherlands. Based on images and pictures, I think we do better in the Netherlands with the (cycle) infrastructure at intersections than Copenhagen.

[@TheMerkat55]

That Copenhagen has thrown out the two-way bike path doesn't mean that it won't work somewhere else. Two separate one-way bike paths on each site of the street means that the street has to have an extra buffer of grass to protect, shield the bicycles from the cars. Here in The Netherlands a person can go from the city of Groningen across the whole country to the city of Tilburg on a bicycle in 13 or 14 hours. Because, even between the cities we have a good bicycle infrastructure. I have watched video's, like this one: kzbin.info/www/bejne/b2qZeZpofMqIrNE, of cyclist in Copenhagen turning left on a intersection. They have to go to the other side of the intersection and wait there for that traffic light there to turn green, so that they can finish their left turn. Stupid idea, because that brings them in contact with the cars. In this video there is a separate lane for turning right, but what if there isn't. Does the driver have to wait for the cyclist to finish their left turn and hold up the cars behind him?

[@barvdw]

@@TheMerkat55 This is at Søtorvet, there's a cycle track to the right of the street, so coming from the bridge you can just turn right, but if you need to turn left again further down the street, like into Vendersgade, there's no way you can cross this busy throughfare, hence the separate bike track on the left side of the street. (Yay for Google Street View!) Bidirectional bike paths, especially heavily used ones, like in Copenhagen, have to be very wide, almost wider than 2 monodirectional ones, because there's more conflict between cyclists moving in opposite ways. They work just fine whithout the huge numbers of commuters that use them every day, but that excludes most cities. So I am not opposed against bidirectional bike paths, but only as a stopgap solution, or for lesser roads with lesser bike traffic. If not, give me separate bike paths anytime.

[@ringo666]

I've long wanted to ride Groningen. The trip from USA for self, adult daughter, and OUR bikes is too pricey, though. And my knees are failing now.

[@DougGrinbergs]

We can all try to spread the gospel of Copenhagenize as it applies to our cities, counties, regions. (:-) Ride on, sisters and brothers!

[@bearmerica6668]

Ride a bike in Houston, Texas the whole non winter days and tell me if full cycling is doable ;)

[@peter1062]

It's not quite fair to compare Copenhagen to Amsterdam. He's comparing the best in Denmark to the worst in the Netherlands

[@dennisverweij4817]

And then the gall to say that there isn't a national standard and each city is different?! like we have national guidelines... I mean there is a lot of what he says I agree with, but how he holds up Copenhagen as the holy grail when in the Netherlands there are far better standards, I can only shake my head.

[@JustClaude13]

America doesn't have the political culture to build infrastructure on the level of Amsterdam. Copenhagen can be snuck in the back door and is good enough to get 10% of the people on bikes. That would be enough to make a real change in our quality of life.

[@potatochalbro]

He doesn´t seem to like eco-friendly people lol.

[@alanfrost75]

+Michal Kolman Haha. I think he emphasises that part so that people dont go off saying, "Oh well, its just some hippie eco trend". He wants to really underline that this is practiced by normal people.

[@trainrover]

How come that geezer blathering about one of the crappiest of ideas is filmed wearing sunglasses underneath overcast sky. What must've been shaming him, right.