Fully 55 percent of residents travel to work or school on bikes. Some roads, including bridges, are just for them. (Photograph by Johan Spanner for The International Herald Tribune) By JOHN TAGLIABUE
COPENHAGEN -- Mikael le Dous, 56, a power plant engineer, rides a bike, though he also has a car. He just wishes bikers behaved.
''We call cyclists the plague of the pavement,'' he said.
As the head of the Danish Pedestrian Association, which he founded six years ago, he dedicates his spare time to doing something about them.
Armed with a digital camera and a video recording device mounted on the dashboard of his car, he photographs bikers who ignore traffic lights, or go up one-way streets the wrong way. He gathers material to present to the authorities to argue for stricter surveillance of cyclists.
Sometimes, he says, the results of biker misbehavior can be fatal.
''It happens occasionally that you'll have an older woman, not hit but surprised and frightened by a bike so that she falls and maybe even dies,'' he said. ''Then they say, 'Is the cyclist to blame?' ''
In a nation dedicated to bicycling, however, Mr. le Dous has been fighting an uphill battle. The association now has only about 160 members, with a meager annual budget of a little over $2,000. But the focus of their annoyance is clear.
''I cycle a lot. We don't mind cyclists,'' Mr. le Dous said over coffee on a recent afternoon. ''We mind people who don't respect the law.''
Andreas Rohl thinks he has seen the future and is convinced that it moves on two wheels. Over at the city's immense neo-medieval town hall, he heads a successful program to make bicycles the dominant means of transportation. Every day, fully 55 percent of Copenhageners travel to work or school on a bike, though last year, he admits, the number sagged a bit because of a severe winter. Why so many bikes? Simple, he says: ''Because it's an easy way to get around.''
Broad bike lanes abound in the Danish capital, population 1.2 million, and bikers fill them. Some thoroughfares, including bridges over the harbor, are exclusively for bikes. On some days, as many as 36,000 bikers swarm through the Norrebrogade, one of the streets leading to the city center that now consists of wide bike paths in both directions and of narrow lanes for cars and buses.
Mr. le Dous looks enviously at the Danish Cyclist Federation. Founded in 1905 and boasting 17,000 members around the country, the federation wields the enormous clout in Denmark on matters of traffic that automobile associations have elsewhere.
With 25 employees in its main office, the federation has grown in recent years to make the bike an exportable item, not just physical bicycles and biking equipment but also consulting and advice for cities elsewhere seeking to become more biker friendly
Bike safety has improved recently thanks to a range of measures, including wider bike paths and programs to alert bikers to the need for discipline. ''Last year, we had the lowest number of traffic accidents ever, including the lowest number of fatalities involving bicycles ever,'' the Federation spokesman said. In 2010, the number of seriously injured cyclists dropped to 92, including 3 fatalities, compared with 252 seriously injured only five years earlier.
Like many in Copenhagen, Natalia Privalova, 37, an office manager, has two bikes, including a cargo bike with a wooden platform in front to transport her children. Cyclists respect pedestrians, she said and then added, ''when they follow the rules.''
''Of course,'' she said, ''rush hour is another story.''
In a market stall where he sells beer and wine downtown, Simon Barfoed, 32, was tougher on cyclists. "Pedestrian anger is 'justified,'' he said. ''I think many bikers drive like they own the place.'' He owns no car and uses a bike to ride work, yet he said the bike brought disadvantages for businesses like his. ''If you want to buy a case of beer, it's hard to carry on a bike,'' he said.
Ullaliv Friis, 66, a retired city official who is the pedestrian association's managing director, says the sidewalks have become risky for retirees and older people because of cyclists. ''The cyclist has taken over everything,'' she said.
Over at City Hall, Mr. Rohl hears the pedestrians' complaints, and says the city has taken measures to improve biker behavior. It occasionally sends out field workers, for example, stopping cyclists they see displaying exemplary behavior, like making proper hand signals or respecting pedestrians, and rewarding them with small boxes of chocolate.
Ms. Ayfer Baykal, 35, the deputy mayor for technology and the environment, was born in Copenhagen of Turkish immigrant parents, and is proud of what the city has accomplished. When relatives visit from Turkey, where the automobile remains a symbol of success, they are stunned at her use of a bike. ''They say, 'Can't you afford a car?' '' she said with a laugh.
"Biker abuse of pedestrians happens, but then pedestrians walk in bike lanes, too. They have to respect each other. It's not that bad.''
Mr.le Dous, while not discouraged, is realistic about his chances of bending the discussion toward pedestrian rights. Their plight, he said, ''is not looked upon as something serious, it's simply not their field of interest.''
Then, referring to cyclists, he added ''The new kid has all the attention.''
adapted from The International Herald Tribune - NYT
