Designing the bike-friendly city

A new research project at the Faculty of Life Sciences will show architects how urban areas can be designed to encourage city dwellers to choose bicycles as their preferred mode of transport. The project has been granted DKK 13 million by the Danish Council for Strategic research

by Anders Fjeldberg. English version by Luci Ellis

How can city planners encourage people to travel by bike?

This is the question to be answered by a new research collaboration between 4 different universities, including the University of Copenhagen, as well as the Danish cancer charity Kræftens Bekæmpelse and two other Danish institutions.

Bike-ability

The project is calle Bike-ability and will be coordinated from the University of Copenhagen's Faculty of Life Sciences (Life) over the next three years.

The faculty's Professor Gertrud Jørgensen will head the project, according to a press release on Life's website.

A cycle event, in the form of a bicycle race kicked off the project yesterday Wednesday, starting at Life. Danish Minister of Science Helge Sander took part in the event, which ended in Copenhagen's City Museum. The museum houses a collection of modern and antique bicycles.

Collaboration with Netherlands

The researchers at Life will collaborate with a technical University in the Netherlands, Delft University of Technology, to find out which technical solutions can increase the number of cyclists in cities.

A virtual modelling system will allow researchers to map the results and test them against each other in order to generate concrete suggestions to improve infrastructure and city planning to improve cycling conditions.

luci@adm.ku.dk

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