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"The Copenhagen Approach To 'Traffic' Could Transform Your City!"
"Copenhagen has almost 40% of all their overall trips by bike, a staggering figure that is already the best in the world. And yet they're not satisfied.... their goal is to raise that to 50%, and they've got aggressive strategies to do it. This is a lesson to cities that think it's too hard to double their mode bike mode share, from, say, 2% to 4%.
"... (On a related note, this past week another speaker in town, Thomas Campanella, author of The Concrete Dragon, commented that in China bikes are seen as passé and connected to the poverty of the past, and cars are now trendy. This is a scary thought, and disappointing given that bikes could be such a natural part of China's sustainable future.)
"... Copenhagen strongly believes in 'traffic trials' to test what would happen to traffic under different circumstances. They do such trials frequently and very inexpensively, often just by simulating construction ('putting out a few traffic cones').
"For example, Niels spoke of when they closed down the medieval part of the city to traffic for a month, to see what would happen. A great way to test and challenge assumptions about what will happen to traffic, often showing it 'just disappears'."
"In this talk, John Pucher documents the boom in cycling in European and North American cities. He discusses how cycling can thrive even in cities with no history or culture of daily, utilitarian cycling, but only if government policies provide safe, convenient, and pleasant cycling conditions.
"He also addresses the fact that government policies are key to encouraging walking and making it safer. Safe infrastructure is a prerequisite, but must be complemented by many other supportive measures."
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