20 most bike-friendly cities on the planet

Space occupied by 69 people, 69 people filling a bus, 69 people on bicycles & 60 cars
Credit: Cycling Promotion Fund (CPF)

Cities have a problem with moving people around. Part of that problem is the car. As can be seen in the image above, cars require many times more road space to move the same number of people as is required by other means of transport.

Other problems of cars include:
● resources required for their production
● resources required for their maintenance
● low efficiency – in practice ~20%¹

● low levels of utilization – societies, households & individuals invest large amounts of resources in cars, but they are parked most of the time – when in use they are mainly occupied by just one person – a car weighing 1.5-2 tonnes or more to move a single person weighing, perhaps 80 kilogrammes,² is inefficient

● resources required to provide fuel – including a significant fraction of the $10 million per minute world wide subsidy of fossil fuels³

● emissions are a major source of environmental pollution, & resulting impacts on health & costs

● cars require expensive roads compared with whose required by pedestrians or bikes⁴

● congestion caused by cars means that, in practice, a bike is often quicker, especially if cycle paths are available

● “Studies from Denmark tell us that for every kilometer cycled, society enjoys a net profit of 23 cents, whereas for every kilometer driven by car we suffer a net loss of 16 cents.”⁵

With all of the above in mind, the Copenhagen­ize Design Company’s Index, each year evaluates the most bike-friendly cities in the world. It may surprise that the top ranked city is not in the Netherlands – although the 2nd, 3rd & 8th are:

https://www.wired.com/2015/06/copenhagenize-worlds-most-bike-friendly-cities/
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¹ Wikepedia: “Fuel efficiency”, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_efficiency

² BMC Public Health: “The weight of nations: an estimation of adult human biomass”,
“Average body mass globally was 62 kg. North America has the highest average body mass of any continent (80.7 kg).”
https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1471-2458-12-439

³ Hithchhiker’s Guide 2 Tech, “Fossil fuel subsidies — $US10 million per minute”, http://hhg2tech.blogspot.com/2015/05/fossil-fuel-subsidies.html

⁴ The Guardian, “For the price of a mile of highway, you too can have a bike-friendly city”, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/28/price-mile-highway-bike-friendly-city

⁵ Wired: “The 20 Most Bike-Friendly Cities on the Planet”, https://www.wired.com/2015/06/copenhagenize-worlds-most-bike-friendly-cities/

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