Copenhagen’s bike industry shows its worth

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We know Copenhagen is bicycle mad but what is less known is how much economic worth the bicycle brings to the city.

Now a study by Copenhagen Council estimates the cycle industry in Copenhagen to be worth 1.3bn Danish kroner (£150m) to the city. There are currently 309 registered workplaces in Greater Copenhagen that either sell or repair bicycles and these businesses account for 650 full-time jobs.

“We have a unique approach for bikes here in Copenhagen and it is a nice surprise that it has so much power for the city’s businesses,” Copenhagen’s Technical and Environmental mayor Ayfer Baykal told Danish newspaper Politiken.

The Council has set itself a goal of getting more people to cycle to work with the aim of increasing the current level of 37% to more than 50% by 2015.

Cost benefit

Copenhagen Council looked at a number of various factors including safety, comfort, transport time, tourism and branding to calculate a cost benefit analysis of cycling to see its worth to the city. The council estimated that society earns 1.22 Danish kroner for every biked kilometre, in comparison to 0.69 Danish kroner for every kilometre driven in a car.

The report from Copenhagen Council also found that 96% of all schoolchildren in Copenhagen have a bicycle and that roughly 55% of them bike to school regularly, either by themselves or accompanied by a parent.

Cargo bikes

If anything characterises Copenhagen it is cargo bikes. There are over 30,000 of these in operation in Copenhagen with one in every seven families with small children using cargo bikes, according to Copenhagen Council.