"Bycyklen" - Copenhagen's City Bike Program
© Paul DeMaio 2000The following page is about Copenhagen's City Bike Program. For more information on bike-sharing programs visit The Bike-sharing Blog or contact MetroBike, LLC, North America's first bike-sharing consulting company. You can also learn about Helsinki, Finland's City Bike Program.
On May 30, 1995, the City Bike Program, or "Bycyklen" in Danish (pronounced BU'-su-klen), was launched. This public/private partnership placed 1,100 specially-designed bicycles throughout downtown Copenhagen, Denmark for public use. The City Bike program is a remarkable example of a successful, sustainable venture that is helping to solve many urban problems, such as vehicular pollution, traffic congestion, and bicycle theft, while providing an efficient means of transportation around the old city, decreasing the need for parking, and making the city a safer place to work and live.
The Bikes provide a means of efficient, fast, and non-polluting transportation throughout town and are a great alternative to cars and taxis which gridlock city streets. A main concept of the City Bikes is to dissuade the usage of cars within the downtown area and keep clean this medieval part of the city with its unique winding cobblestone streets, Danish architecture, outdoor cafes, and numerous walking-streets.
The Bikes were designed to be durable, adjustable, and economic. Emblazoned with a sponsoring company's ad on its disk wheels and horizontal panel, the City Bikes are unmistakable in their appearance. For example, the seat-post is adjustable for the varying heights of its users. To cut down on costs and extra parts, the brakes work by pedaling backwards rather than requiring the extra components for a front and rear handbrake. The City Bikes were also ingeniously designed so that their components couldn't be scavenged for use on other bikes because the components are incompatible with other bikes and one needs a special tool to disassemble the bike.
To use a City Bike, the user deposits a coin worth 20 Danish "kroner" (about $2.25) into a slot, found on the handlebar of the bike, in order to unlock it from a bike rack. The user can then ride the City Bike for as long as s/he wishes, provided that s/he remain within the designated boundary of the old city. To return the bike, the user simply locks it to any of the 120 City Bike racks strategically located around the city at train and bus stops, multi-story housing flats, shopping districts, and tourist attractions. Once the bike is locked, the user's coin will be returned; so the bike's use really is free.
The boundary that the bikes must remain in is composed of four man-made "lakes" and the harbor. City Bike use outside of the boundary, which is considered as theft, has a hefty penalty of 1,000 kroner (about $170), although few have actually been fined. However, Bikes that have been removed from the boundary can be brought back inside without the fear of a fine. The police have been asked to fine City Bike users outside of the zone, but have not been strict. In 1995 and 1996, there were only 10 fines.
"Fonden Bycyklen i København" (The City Bike Foundation of Copenhagen) is the non-profit organization that runs this Program. The Foundation consists of a board of six members including the creators of the Program, Morten Sadolin and Ole Wessung. The City Bike concept in Denmark was born in 1988 when Sadolin and Wessung went out one night, by bike, and later returned only to find that their bikes had been stolen. On their walk home they imagined a radical solution - a city where one could use a bike and leave it at the destination so that another could again use the bike to get to a different destination. This concept had been tried in The Netherlands in the 1970's, although without success - the bikes had all been stolen within four hours.
In 1991, Sadolin and Wessung seriously considered this concept, but found it too expensive for a private company. The concept was reconsidered a few years later due to the urging of a friend and local bicycle shop owner, Niels Christiansen, and in 1995 the first real trial was made with City government involvement. The City of Copenhagen agreed to supply the stainless steel bike racks and allow them to be placed throughout town on public property. They saw this as a wonderful opportunity to alleviate cars within the old city - thereby reducing pollution, decreasing bike theft which has plagued the city, and promoting increased bicycle usage in which the downtown is ideal due to its bike lanes, bicycle traffic lights, and flat geography.
Much political power was necessary to make this program happen. Bente Frost, Mayor of Copenhagen, and Søren B. Jensen, General Secretary of the Fourth Magistrate Department for Municipality of Copenhagen were key in getting the project off the ground. They obtained permission from Copenhagen's City Council to construct the special City Bike bike racks over increasingly rare public parking spaces.
The Foundation then looked for corporate sponsors to help with the financing of the design and production of the Bikes. Sponsorship costs 2,500 kroner (about $280) per year per Bike and at least 25 Bikes must be sponsored. For quantities of 300+ Bikes, the sponsorship cost is reduced to 1,700 kroner (about $190) per year per Bike. In return for sponsorship, the sponsor places an advertisement on the Bike which appears on each side of the top tube panel and on the disk wheels. The high-visibility of the Bikes has attracted many sponsors, including Politiken (Danish newspaper), Netto (supermarket chain), Post (national Danish mail carrier), Coca-Cola, 2V (Danish real estate company), and the Girl Scouts of Denmark to name a few.
The City Bikes are extremely well used. Politiken followed a City Bike for 12 hours and found that it spent only eight minutes not in use. With all this wear and tear, the 1995 City Bikes were examined and 46 adaptations were made to the 1996 model, including thickening of the puncture-proof tires and strengthening of the frame, making the 1996 City Bikes even safer and more durable than before. With the adaptations made, 1,700 new City Bikes replaced the old ones in 1996.
Eventually all the Bikes will need repair, so when they do they are either fixed on the spot if possible, or picked up by the Copenhagen Road Department and taken to a local jail where they are fixed by inmates. Hans Ankær, Jail Workshop Supervisor, said, "The prisoners like the work and support the whole idea." Ankær also noted that the inmates take pride in their work and feel good about their positive and tangible contribution to the city.
As mentioned earlier, bicycle theft is a big problem in Denmark. In the 1981-1991 period alone, an average of about 90,000 bikes a year were reported stolen. One of the many goals of the City Bike program is to decrease bike theft by offering an alternative to a potential thief. The police estimate that roughly two-thirds of thefts are "convenience thefts" - where a bike is stolen simply to be used to transport the thief to a destination; then the bike is abandoned. With the City Bikes, convenience thefts have dramatically dropped. Statistics from "Dansk Statistik og Forsikringsoplysningen" (Danish Statistics and Insurance Information organization) are supportive that the City Bikes have indeed lowered theft in Copenhagen. Reported bicycle thefts are down for the 3rd and 4th quarters of 1995 and all quarters in 1996.
The City Bike program is beginning to become synonymous with Copenhagen just like another one of its main attractions, The Little Mermaid. The City Bike Foundation of Copenhagen is delighted with the results and plans to continue with the program for years to come. In early 1997 the Foundation added 1,000 City Bikes with even more improvements and modifications. In the nearby future, an enlargement of the boundary is planned, in order to reach tens of thousands more in a dense part of Copenhagen which lies just outside of the old city. To some, this expansion isn't such a good idea. The current boundaries are very easy to sight because they are bodies of water. To remedy this problem, signs will be posted on the streets that exit the boundary to notify City Bike users not to continue with the City Bike. The signs will also help to decrease accidental theft by tourists who are unfamiliar with the city and the program's boundaries. Residents of Copenhagen now respect the City Bike program for its philosophy and effectiveness of keeping cars out of the old city, thereby keeping the air and streets clean, as well as for its convenience.
It can be said that bicycling is in the blood of Danish culture. Danes don't treat the bicycle as a toy which is grown out of, but as a practical form of transportation and recreation. The City Bike program is working so well that word has been spreading throughout Europe. New City Bike programs are either just beginning or in the works in Berlin, Hanover, Mannheim, Munich, Trier, Barcelona, Brussels, Stockholm, and even back in Amsterdam. With the continued success of the City Bikes and their expansion across Europe, who knows, the U.S. might one day soon welcome it to our shores.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
1) Interview with Nikolai Plesner of the City Bike Foundation of Copenhagen (Fonden Bycyklen i København), October 4, 1996, Nyhavn, Copenhagen, Denmark.
2) Ministry of Transport, "The Bicycle in Denmark: Present Use and Future Potential," Copenhagen, Danmark, 1993.
3) The City Bike Foundation of Copenhagen, "Bikes Are Flexible, Healthy, and Environmentally Friendly," Nyhavn, Copenhagen, Denmark, 1995.
4) Danish Cycling Federation (Dansk Cycklist Forbund), "Figures on Traffic in Denmark," Copenhagen, Denmark, September 1992.
5) Interview with Niels Christiansen of Schrøder Cykler, November 18, 1996, Hellerup, Copenhagen, Denmark.
6) Statistics provided by the Danish Statistics and Insurance Information Organization (Dansk Statistik og Forsikringsoplysningen), Denmark, December 1996.