Copenhagen Transportation Tips by Nemorino Top 5 Page for this destination

Copenhagen Harbor Buses (Københavns Havnebusser) Habour Bus Review

Photos:
1. Harbor bus 903 from Nyhavn to Operaen
2. A harbor bus coming in to Holmen North
3. Bus stop for harbor buses at Operaen

Like the Mouettes in Geneva, Switzerland, the Copenhagen Harbor Buses are boats which run on regular routes and can be used with the same ticket that you would use for a normal bus or a Metro train.

There are currently three Harbor Bus lines, numbered 901, 902 and 903 with a total of six stops, three on each side of the harbor.

Like the normal buses, the Harbor Buses are run by Movia, the Greater Copenhagen Transit Authority.

After the opera performance I attended at Operaen there were two Harbor Buses waiting to carry opera goers back across the harbor to the city center. Unfortunately there were more people waiting than would fit on the two boats, so some of the people had to wait for a third boat to arrive a few minutes later.

Mode: AROUND

Type: Ship/Boat

Website: http://www.moviatrafik.dk/dinrejse/kort/trafikkort/Documents/Hovedstadsomraadet/Havnebus.pdf

Grøn bølge = Green Wave for cyclists Bicycle Review

Photos:
1. Grøn bølge sign
2. Grøn bølge symbol on the street
3. Cycling on the green wave route at Oslo Plads
4. Another cyclist on Oslo Plads
5. Stopping at Oslo Plads to check her text messages

Copenhagen has recently inaugurated its second (I think) Green Wave for cyclists on Østerbrogade, Dag Hammarskjolds Alle, Oslo Plads and Kronprinsessegade.

As on the first one, on Nørrebrogade, the traffic lights are set so that cyclists going 20 kilometers per hour will always have green lights all the way into town in the morning, or all the way out in the afternoon.

Since it is not possible to make green waves simultaneously in both directions, cyclists coming into the city have priority from 6:30 to 12:00 noon. After that, outward bound cyclist get a green wave until 18:00.

As you might have guessed, the cyclists on my third, fourth and fifth photos are actually going slower than 20 kilometers per hour and seem to be in no hurry to get to work. That's because I took the photos on a Sunday morning.

GPS 55°41'23.10" North; 12°35'12.10" East

Mode: AROUND

Type: Bicycle

Website: http://www.copenhagenize.com/search?q=%C3%98sterbrogade+Green+Wave

Bicycle counter Bicycle Review

Photos:
1. The 1,397th cyclist of the day
2. The 1,399th cyclist of the day
3. Free public bicycle pump next to the counter

For the past half century Copenhagen has been very good about collecting and evaluating statistics about how people travel in the city and make use of their public spaces.

A further development in statistics collection is this bicycle counter that was recently installed on H C Andersens Boulevard at the City Hall Square.

This is an important development because without a full and exact count it is easy to underestimate the number of bicycles on a city street. Since bicycles are silent, inconspicuous and space-saving, they are often overlooked, and city planners do not become properly aware of how numerous they are.

On the rainy morning when I took these photos, the man in the first photo was the 1,397th cyclist to pass the counter that day, and the 319,184th to pass since the counter was installed.

In the second photo two more have just passed by, and I then became the 1,400th for that day.

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Update: When I first wrote this tip I forgot to mention that there is a free public bicycle pump next to the counter (third photo). Note the slogan: I + bicycle symbol + CPH for Copenhagen.

This free public bicycle pump is a very nice gesture to cyclists on the part of the city -- but it would have been even more useful in the 19th and 20th centuries, when bicycle tires and tubes were not as robust as they are now.

VT member Trekki (Ingrid) saw several of these free public bicycle pumps on her trip through Sweden in the summer of 2009, and she has posted a tip about them called Cycling friendly cities, air-pumps available on her Sweden page.

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GPS 55°40'31.56" North; 12°34'7.73" East

Mode: AROUND

Type: Bicycle

Website: http://www.copenhagenize.com/2009/05/bicyclists-count-in-copenhagen.html

Cycling in Copenhagen Bicycle Review

Photos:
People riding bicycles in Copenhagen

Bicycles now have a 37% share of traffic in the Copenhagen metropolitain area -- right up there with cities like Amsterdam in the Netherlands and Münster in Germany.

This makes bicycles the most commonly used form of transportation in Copenhagen. Cars are second with 30%, then comes public transit with 28%. The remaining five per cent are pedestrian trips.

The official goal of the Copenhagen city council is to increase the percentage of commuters who cycle to work or education to 50% by 2015.

In a recent speech in Montreal, the Danish architect and urban design consultant Jan Gehl described Copenhagen as a people-oriented, rather than car-oriented, city.

"In a people-oriented city," he said, "we do everything we can to invite people to walk or bicycle as much as possible in the course of their daily doings."

He said that in most cities the planners panicked back in the 1950s and 60s, when cars started to invade city streets. Traffic departments concentrated on how to make cars move smoothly through cities and park easily, but forgot about all the other ways people might want to use public space.

"For 50 years, the purpose of the city has been to make the cars happy, when they are moving and when they are parked. We have done our planning as if there are no other important issues in the city."

He was also quoted as saying: "We have to see the city as existing not to make cars happy, but to make people happy. The people in the cars can be happy, too; they just might not be able to drive so fast." And when they get out of their cars they can enjoy a much more attractive and healthier city.

Mode: AROUND

Type: Bicycle

Website: http://communities.canada.com/montrealgazette/print.aspx?postid=304070

Cycling in the rain Bicycle Review

Photos: Seventeen people cycling in the rain in Copenhagen

In the middle of my visit to Copenhagen in June 2009 I was treated to one of their famous Baltic low-pressure areas, which brought thirty-six consecutive hours of drenching rainfall.

As I mentioned in my Rainy days in Copenhagen travelogue, this had a somewhat dampening effect on bicycle traffic. Instead of the usual 500,000 there were only about 300,000 cyclists on the streets (my estimate), which was a noticeable reduction but still more than you've ever seen in your life if you happen to come from an over-motorized country.

Mode: AROUND

Type: Bicycle

Website: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0mSVbisZyE&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.copenhagencyclechic.com%2Fsearch%3Fq%3DRain&feature=player_embedded

Movia buses Bus.. Review

Photos:
1. Five Movia buses lined up after the opera
2. Movia bus 66 waiting at Operaen
3. This line runs "every six minutes"

Movia is the Greater Copenhagen Transit Authority. They run lots of bus lines, including the number 66 to Operaen.

At the end of each opera performance there are five or six buses lined up (first photo) to take opera goers back into town.

If I've understood it correctly, the sign on the number 1A bus (third photo) says that this line runs every six minutes on all work days from morning to evening. And then in small print: Igen og igen og . . ., meaning "Again and again and . . ."

Mode: AROUND

Type: Bus

Website: http://www.moviatrafik.dk/

Cargo bikes Bicycle Review

Photos: Cargo bikes in Copenhagen.

Copenhagen has a long history of cargo bikes (trikes actually, since they have three wheels).

In my photos the cargo bikes are all being used to transport people and in one case a dog, but they are also often used to transport, well, cargo.

The cargo bike in my fifth photo is a Christianiabike -- see my Christiania tip under "Things to Do" for more details.

Mode: AROUND

Type: Bicycle

Website: http://www.copenhagenize.com/search?q=Cargo

S-trains Train Review

As in Germany, no one in Denmark seems to know what the S stands for on the S-trains, but for English speakers it is convenient to think of them as suburban trains, which is essentially what they are.

There are seven S-train lines, most of which run every ten or twenty minutes from five in the morning until one the next morning. The train on the photo is on the B line going to Holte, a town some twenty kilometers north of Copenhagen.

The S-trains are entirely electrified and run on their own tracks, separate from the tracks used by long-distance trains.

The writing on this train says: Det er ikke at spørgsmål om grøn - men hvor grøn. Which I think must mean something like: This isn't just making an issue of being green - it is green.

(Perhaps some Danish person can provide a better translation of this? - Thanks!)

GPS 55°48'25.07"N; 12°26'53.46"E (Holte)

Mode: TO

Type: Train

Website: http://www.linkedin.com/companies/dsb-s-tog

Trains to Copenhagen Train Review

Photos:
1. Copenhagen main station (København H)
2. In the EuroCity train to Copenhagen

I traveled to Copenhagen on a EuroCity train from Hamburg, and returned the same way the following week. Currently there are three Danish EuroCity trains per day on this route, and three German InterCityExpress trains (ICE). These are diesel trains because the route is not yet completely electrified.

The trip from Hamburg to Copenhagen takes not quite five hours, including forty-five minutes on a Scandlines ferry to cross the Fehmarn Belt from the German island of Fehmarn to the Danish island of Lolland. As I have described on my Rødbyhavn page, the train is the last vehicle to be driven onto the ferry and the first to be driven off, so the connection is fast and convenient for train passengers.

Another thing I mentioned on my Rødbyhavn page was that this was a "free" train trip for me -- free in the sense that it didn't cost me any money but only three thousand "Bonus Points" that I had accumulated as a frequent traveler on the German Railroad System. Since these "Bonus Points" are usually more or less worthless, I was amazed to discover that a mere three thousand of them would get me a first class ticket from Frankfurt am Main to Copenhagen and back.

GPS 55°40'22.72" North; 12°33'51.92" East (Copenhagen main station)

Mode: TO

Type: Train

Website: http://www.dsb.dk/cs/Satellite?pagename=DSBUK/Forside

Metro M1 to the new Concert House Metro Review

Photos:
1. Metro M1 going past the new DR Concert Hall
2. People boarding the M1 at the DR Byen station
3. Metro tracks and station as seen from the concert house

Using the new Metro M1 line you can get from the city center to the new DR Concert House in just a few minutes.

The station is called DR Byen (Meaning Danish Radio City) and also serves the nearby university campus.

As you can see in the third photo, there is also an ugly parking lot on the other side of the tracks (even Copenhagen has ugly parking lots!) for those who insist on driving to the concert in their heart attack machines.

GPS 55°39'20.53" North; 12°35'19.76" East (DR Byen Metro station)

Mode: AROUND

Type: Subway/Metro

Website: http://www.m.dk