Planning and safety of bicycles in urban areas

The Danish tradition of cycling started 100 years ago. The bicycle has been an important part of Danish traffic and, unlike many other countries, increasing car traffic has not ousted the bicycle as an everyday means of transport. It is used by all sections of society - for work, leisure and on holidays. The infrastructure for bicycles includes construction of cycle tracks and cycle routes, parking facilities and bicycle facilities related to public transport. Traffic safety of cyclists depends on the coherent planning of bicycle networks, road safety design at intersections and road safety design on the road stretches between the intersections, bicycle safety equipment including use of bicycle helmets, road user behavior and legislation and speed management for car traffic. The Danish road standards for geometric design of urban areas include instructions for planning and road design for bicycles. New experiences and research results have been collected and included in the current revision of the standards. During 1995 - 1997 ten new "Bicycle demonstration projects" were initiated and financially supported by the government as a consequence of the Danish master plan TRAFFIC 2005 which includes targets for traffic safety and cycling: Due to environmental reasons in town areas, cycling shall be promoted and traffic safety of cyclists shall be significantly increased. This paper presents an overview of the Danish experiences on central problems and solutions related to planning and safety measures for bicycles.