The Suburbs

So I love the beauty, energy and density of Copenhagen. I'm in awe of the innovation, intention and design of nearly every millimeter of space. However, when I take back pictures where the buildings look like these and talk about the associated infrastructure needed to support the people living in this density, it feels so unfamiliar as our communities are not nearly as dense.

The neighborhood of my airbnb.

In the new north harbor. These are offices built around an old silo.

So my fellow professional Andrew Martin and I went on an explore to the suburbs to see with our very own eyes that yes, you CAN have good transit, pedestrian and cycling access in a suburban context. We took one of the cycling "superhighways" west until we hit some stuff that looks like home. The cycling superhighways are a relatively new network of "enhanced" facilities with good pavement condition, width and signal timing to support longer distance cycling trips of 5-30km.

Just more electric buses.

One of the superhighways. Nice and wide with zero debris.

Intersection with signals and turning lanes.

So cycling in the suburbs. There were lots of cars and the environment wasn't nearly as pretty but the whole thing felt very practical. The superhighway felt safe and very easy to use. There was a lot of design that made my trip seamless and FAST. We saw a lot of e-bikes and can imagine how these facilities are a madhouse during the commute hours.