Copenhagen City Bikes

The city bikes in Copenhagen are world famous, and many visitors as well as Copenhageners use them as a quick and free alternative to cars, busses and taxis, when getting around the city. The City of Copenhagen systematically expands the net of bicycle lanes and routes. Hence, you can get faster around Copenhagen by bicycle than by any other means of transportation.

City Bike One
The city bikes are synonymous with Copenhagen. In fact, the official gift from The City of Copenhagen to American president Bill Clinton, when he visited Copenhagen in 1997, was a specially designed city bike called "City Bike One".

How to use a city bike

All you have to do is find one of the 110 city bike-racks in the centre of the city, deposit a DKK 20 coin in the locker of the bike and ride off - on your bike, Copenhagen style. When you return the cycle to any rack, you get your DKK 20 coin back. Note that the use of the free city bikes is limited to the city bike zone in central Copenhagen. The city bikes are on the streets from mid April to November.

Weblink: http://www.bycyklen.dk/english/thecitybikeandcopenhagen.aspx



And thats the promise of the future:

The Cophenhagen Wheel - available June 2011

Smart, responsive and elegant, the Copenhagen Wheel is a new emblem for urban mobility. It transforms ordinary bicycles quickly into hybrid e-bikes that also function as mobile sensing units. The Copenhagen Wheel allows you to capture the energy dissipated while cycling and braking and save it for when you need a bit of a boost. It also maps pollution levels, traffic congestion,and road conditions in real-time.

The Countdown to June 2011

Sense and Sustainability

Controlled through your smart phone, the Copenhagen Wheel becomes a natural extension of your everyday life. You can use your phone to unlock and lock your bike, change gears and select how much the motor assists you. As you cycle, the wheel’s sensing unit is also capturing your effort level and information about your surroundings, including road conditions, carbon monoxide, NOx, noise, ambient temperature and relative humidity. Access this data through your phone or the web and use it to plan healthier bike routes, to achieve your exercise goals or to meet up with friends on the go. You can also share your data with friends, or with your city - anonymously if you wish – thereby contributing to a fine-grained database of environmental information from which we can all benefit.

Weblink: http://senseable.mit.edu/copenhagenwheel