Bicycle Superhighway in Denmark

Jan Grarup for The New York Times

With the delay of New York's bike sharing experiment, it's nice to see progress in other countries. Copenhagen, already boasting some of the highest bicycle commuting in the world has expanded its efforts. One of the organizers asked a very compelling question that all project managers should ask themselves: "How can we do better?"

“We are very good, but we want to be better,” said Brian Hansen, the head of Copenhagen’s traffic planning section.

He and his team saw potential in suburban commuters, most of whom use cars or public transportation to reach the city. “A typical cyclist uses the bicycle within five kilometers,” or about three miles, said Mr. Hansen, whose office keeps a coat rack of ponchos that bicycling employees can borrow in case of rain. “We thought: How do we get people to take longer bicycle rides?”

The answer was to build bike lanes that mimic some of the properties of freeways with right-of-way extended to the cyclists. Read the full article for all the great details of how they encourage bicycle commuting here. Solar-powered lights in forested trails, angled garbage bins, bike 'buses' to share the burden of blocking the wind, chocolates distributed to reward good bicycling habits.

It all makes me sad to have left bike-friendly Oregon for car crazy New Jersey.