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Copenhagenize Index 2025: The Global Ranking of Bicycle-Friendly Cities

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Re: Copenhagenize Index 2025: The Global Ranking of Bicycle-Friendly Cities

#51

Post by prmoustache »

maelito wrote: post #22

Ranking Bordeaux and Nantes next to Amsterdam is nonsense. Amsterdam is miles ahead in terms of infrastructure. This ranking dilutes the most important thing to get these results : good bike lancés everywhere with no discontinuity. Disclaimer : I've built villes.plus, an open source automated evaluation of bike lanes. 100 points, compute itineraries in "secure" mode with Brouter between these points, count the % of s…

I can't speak about Nantes which I haven't visited for decades but I think it is wrong to count bikes lanes as a single parameter.

Dutch urbanists have found that bike lanes are very important when streets used by cars are unaltered. Once you implement a lot of traffic calming features and cars never reach 30kph comfortably, bike lanes aren't that important and then streets can be shared across all users.

Re: Copenhagenize Index 2025: The Global Ranking of Bicycle-Friendly Cities

#52

Post by jonkoops »

I always have a laugh when I see Copenhagen brag about its cycling infrastructure (e.g. Scandinavian Airlines declaring it bike-mecca in their flyers). I am very sorry, but it really doesn't come even close to Amsterdam, or most other Dutch cities really. There are a tonne of places where high-volume car traffic still intersects with low-speed bicycle traffic in Copenhagen, a lot of high-speed car roads with painted on lines, instead of actually separated infrastructure.

Also, the Netherlands is in its entirety covered in separated infrastructure optimized over decades. Just take a look at how anemic Denmark's infrastructure is outside the cities (https://www.opencyclemap.org/).

Re: Copenhagenize Index 2025: The Global Ranking of Bicycle-Friendly Cities

#53

Post by fsh »

makeitdouble wrote: post #34

Paris being 5th when biking there is pure chaos compared to many Asian cities makes the ranking look capricious. Paris's City hall is definitely pro bike and a lot of money and effort was poured into infrastructure, but that dosn't suddenly makes it safe or largely adopted. More generally, infrastructure isn't everything. Tokyo small streets with absolutely no markings can be way safer and bike friendlier than a brig…

I didn't even feel particularly safe as a pedestrian in Tokyo or Osaka. Despite the good public transport, Japanese cities have cars absolutely everywhere, even in tiny streets that should really be pedestrian zones. Paris is much better in my opinion.

Re: Copenhagenize Index 2025: The Global Ranking of Bicycle-Friendly Cities

#54

Post by petermcneeley »

TulliusCicero wrote: post #38
petermcneeley wrote: post #27

It is currently -1 to -3 in Montreal and -2 to -7 in Quebec (city). So yes folks literally freezing. It will remain so (down to -35) for the next 4 months.

Oulu Finland has plenty of biking in the winter, despite its extreme northern latitude. It's about infrastructure and investment.

In Vancouver this mostly works because it is cold but not cold enough. There are only a few days where it is very sketchy. The rest of Canada is not like this.

Re: Copenhagenize Index 2025: The Global Ranking of Bicycle-Friendly Cities

#55

Post by maelito »

throwaway198846 wrote: post #29
maelito wrote: post #22

Ranking Bordeaux and Nantes next to Amsterdam is nonsense. Amsterdam is miles ahead in terms of infrastructure. This ranking dilutes the most important thing to get these results : good bike lancés everywhere with no discontinuity. Disclaimer : I've built villes.plus, an open source automated evaluation of bike lanes. 100 points, compute itineraries in "secure" mode with Brouter between these points, count the % of s…

What does it mean to be "secure"?

https://github.com/laem/villes.plus/blob/master/isSafePath.j...

Feel free to suggest a better algorithm ! It's version 2, issues already discuss missing important OSM tags.

Re: Copenhagenize Index 2025: The Global Ranking of Bicycle-Friendly Cities

#56

Post by jeroenhd »

Not Just Bikes, the internet famous pro-bike infrastructure enthusiast, voiced their critique on this list a few days ago: https://social.notjustbikes.com/@notjustbikes/11560519028224...

The note about Copenhagenize being a consulting firm probably explains why the list is so full of weird and arbitrary choices.

At least their method is somewhat open (though I can't find the raw data they used/compensation factors/calculations): https://copenhagenizeindex.eu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/COP...

Things like "usage of cargo bikes", "percentage of women on bikes", "presence of NGOs", "media tone" all make for rather arbitrary outliers depending on how much they weigh in the final score.

Re: Copenhagenize Index 2025: The Global Ranking of Bicycle-Friendly Cities

#57

Post by jonkoops »

usrnm wrote: post #13
bgnn wrote: post #6

I'm not surprised to see Utrecht in the first place, but quite a bit surprised to see the other Dutch cities so low. No offense, but Rotterdam or The Heague is 100x better than Paris from safety and convenience point of view. I'm curious why is the ranking like this.

I've lived in both cities and I'm surprised to see Utrecht above Amsterdam. Both are great, but I'd say Amsterdam is actually more bike-centered

I have lived in both as well, and I feel the complete opposite.

Re: Copenhagenize Index 2025: The Global Ranking of Bicycle-Friendly Cities

#58

Post by mytailorisrich »

werdnapk wrote: post #46
petermcneeley wrote: post #27

It is currently -1 to -3 in Montreal and -2 to -7 in Quebec (city). So yes folks literally freezing. It will remain so (down to -35) for the next 4 months.

People wear appropriate clothing for the weather. Those temperatures are no reason to stop biking. People do not "literally" freeze when it's below 0.

Cycling or walking when it is -20C or even less does sound a little masochistic if there are alternatives available.

Re: Copenhagenize Index 2025: The Global Ranking of Bicycle-Friendly Cities

#59

Post by prmoustache »

sandworm101 wrote: post #42
heresie-dabord wrote: post #12

Bicycling is part of the mobility culture of Montreal, but whether Montreal is actually friendly to bicyclists is open to heated debate. Cars dominate the topology.

Montreal's city leaders might be friendly. Its climate is not. Once the snow falls, the number of bicycle commuters plummets towards zero. Paris, vancouver, the netherlands ... they have stable climates condusive to bike use. At -10 it isnt the cars that will cause a crash, it is the physics of a two rubber wheels trying to navigate on ice. Also, Quebec is not a city. The city is called "Quebec City" just as how New…

Tell that to the cyclists in Oulu, Finland. https://oulu.com/en/living/mobility/cycling/

The thing is: after a snow fall, they prioritize the bike roads/lanes before taking care of the roads used by cars.

When I was living in Switzerland, I kept a set of spare wheels with studded tires for those days with risk of ice. Riding on packed snow is perfectly fine on regular tires and ice is not dangerous when you have studded tires.

Re: Copenhagenize Index 2025: The Global Ranking of Bicycle-Friendly Cities

#60

Post by mmoll »

noveltyaccount wrote: post #21
mperham wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you a time traveler from 2010 who's never heard of e-bikes?

In Copenhagen, the vast majority of people park their bikes on the street using only a cafe lock (frame mounted, immobilizes the rear wheel). The bikes are generally nothing special, old rusty junkers, with one or three gears. E-bikes flatten terrain but also you need an indoor place to store it and they become a magnet for theft. A cheap bike you can ride to the Metro and leave in the elements is versatile in a way…

We once rented bikes in Copenhagen, they all looked like they were fresh from the junk yard. We had to try several to find ones where at least one of the brakes was still working. It was a horrible experience, and we tried several different places. That was after we found out that the public bikes that were supposed to be available all over the city had all been stolen.
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