哥本哈根拟建自行车高速路

    为了鼓励更多人骑自行车出行，丹麦首都哥本哈根计划将现有的自行车道改建为自行车高速路。哥本哈根与荷兰的阿姆斯特丹并称为欧洲的两个“自行车之都”，哥本哈根市内的自行车数量甚至超过了其总人数，因此，自行车道经常会出现拥堵。据悉，该市自行车高速路建设将从最拥挤的主干道诺勒布罗加德街开始，计划将这条街的两旁分别拓宽4米作为自行车专用道，主干道将作为公交车专用道。哥本哈根市自行车项目经理表示，要把诺勒布罗加德街建成欧洲最棒的自行车道之一。他预计，自行车高速路建成后，更多郊区居民会加入“骑车族”的行列，他希望到2015年郊区骑自行车的上班族比例能从现阶段的37%提高到50%。

    Copenhagen, one of the world's most bicycle-friendly cities, has begun turning its extensive network of cycle paths into bike highways in an effort to push more commuters to leave their cars at home.

    Considered one of Europe's two "bicycle capitals" along with Amsterdam, Copenhagen counts more bicycles than people and cycling is so popular that its numerous bike paths can become congested.

    Two-wheeler traffic jams are especially regular on the main Noerrebrogade thoroughfare used by around 36,000 cyclists a day. "You have to elbow your way in to go forward and some cyclists aren't always thoughtful," complains 22-year-old university student Lea Bresell.

    The creation of bike highways "comes right on time", says Danish Cyclist Federation 1 spokesman Frits Bredal.

    "Copenhagen's roads are overloaded 2 with people who want to ride their bicycles in all kinds of weather," he says.

    If in the 1960s Danes viewed the car as the symbol of freedom, the bicycle has assumed that role today, Bredal says.

    "It's a mode of transportation used by all social classes, even politicians ride bikes," he says.

    It is on crowded Noerrebrogade - the busiest bicycle street in Europe, according to the cyclist association - that city planners have decided 3 to build the first of Copenhagen's environmentally friendly boulevards. The jammed bike paths will be widened up to four meters on either side of the road, which will itself be reserved for buses only.

    The idea is to make Noerrebrogade "Europe's great cycling street", says Andreas Roehl, the Copenhagen municipality's bicycle program manager who is also known as "Mister Bike".

    But Roehl is not content with making life easier for Copenhagen's inner-city cyclists: He wants to get suburbanites out of their cars and onto two wheels as well.

    His goal is to hike the percentage of suburban 4 commuters cycling to and from the city from the 37 percent it is today to more than 50 percent by 2015. Within the city, 55 percent of all commuters already travel by bike, according to the municipality.

    Already Copenhagen stands out among other European capitals for its cycling infrastructure 5, counting more than 390 kilometers of bike paths.