Less cars makes a better city

Copenhagen, like many western cities, had some very bad decades of urban planning after the second world war, during which many neighborhoods and public spaces were paved to create space for cars. Copenhagen was a first mover in starting the long slow process of correcting these mistakes. A broad coalition in city hall prioritized kids, culture and cyclists in decisions about the city's development, and made Copenhagen a great city to live in without a car. The social democrats, who have held the position of Lord Mayorship for the past 125 years, were for many years constructive members of that coalition.

But not any more. In what I think is the most transformative change in city politics this election cycle, the Social Democrats have, with their lead candidate Pernille Rosenkrantz-Theil, completely reversed course and chosen to side with the motorists. She opposes road-pricing, the most effective tool to bring down car trafic and finance new public transport projects. She promises more parking space, so that it's easier to be a car owner. Her stance is unpopular within her own party - even the sitting Lord Mayor, the social democrat Lars Weiss, is in open disagreement. But the Social Democrats have a top-down power structure, and it's been made clear that Pernille is in charge, so I am afraid we need to take her pro-car stance deadly serious.

Here are some serious facts (details in the comments):

  • Cars are city's most space-greedy transport form. [1]
  • Cars are the city's most unhealthy transport form. [2]
  • Cars are the city's most dangerous transport form. [3]
  • Cars are the city's noisiest transport form. [4]
  • Cars, including electric cars, are the city's most energy-intensive transport form. [5]
  • Cars do not compete on a fair market, but get hidden subsidies and benefits. [6]
slow_rolling

The social democrat's u-turn is hard to understand given that it is unpopular with a majority of Copenhageners. It may be aimed at keeping the car-loving right-wing parties on board with their unpopular mayor candidate, Pernille, in the context of a highly competent challenge from the left, with two serious candidates for mayor in Enhedslisten's Lene Barfod and the Socialist People's Party's Sisse-Marie Welling. Though Alternativet, Denmark's Green Party, does not align itself on the traditional left-right divide over wealth distribution or an ideal size of the state, we do find ourselves in close agreement with Enhedslisten and the Socialist People's Party on this issue. They, like us, put people before cars.

Whatever the outcome of the election, I can promise you that I and the rest of Alternative will keep fighting for a safer, greener, healthier, quieter, more efficient city. This is Alternativet's vision:

  • We want road pricing at a rate that increases as needed to bring total car traffic down 7% a year, aka down 50% by 2035.
  • We want more emissions-free zones like Vesterbro, and emissions-free mobility in the whole city by 2035.
  • We want regular car-free days on all of the city's "brogade" or main streets.
  • We want broader bike paths and to build more bike connections, including new bike bridges across the harbor and to Jernbanebyen.
  • We want to give bikes default right-of-way on all the city's streets.
  • We want to build improved public transit including an S-train express tunnel and a lightrail from Nørrebro over Brønshøj to Herlev.

The space that we win when we lose cars is worth the fight. Kids, culture and climate over cars!

Sources:

[0] The sketch, by Adam Zyglis, is from this Facebook post on the Urban Cycling Institute's page

[1] 58% of the space between houses is for cars (street lanes and parking space) while only 9% is bike lanes and bike parking, despite the fact that there are many more cyclists that motorists. This is equally true of electric cars. See: mobilitesredegørelse i københaven

[2] Society saves about 5 Danish kr per km cycled and 7 kr per km walked, mostly due to the positive health effects, whereas every km driven costs society about 5 kr. See: KØBENHAVN - CYKLERNES By: Cykelregnskabet 2014

[3] 60% of all accidents resulting in injury or fatality in the city involved collision with a car. See: Tabel 11 of Trafikulykker

[4] Though public transportation can be louder, it is less frequent and more concentrated. The noise pollution per person per km travelled is highest for cars. Around 65% of Copenhageners are exposed to more than 55 dB of car noise, whereas only 5% are exposed to the same noise level from trains. See: Population exposure to environmental noise in Europe, figures 9 and 11

[5] This includes electric cars, which take about ~18 kWh/100km/person compared to ~5 kWh/100km/person for a train. See: Energy efficiency in transport

[6] The most obvious example of this is space. A square meter of parking space costs only a tenth of what a square meter of apartment space costs (DKK 150 vs DKK 1,500 rent per square meter per year on average)