@rasmus-k-larsen
Urban planner. Founder of Nordic Path. Lecturer in urban mobility and livable cities. Facilitating professional study tours and knowledge exchange in Copenhagen. Co-founder of New Urban Voices. Trying to cure the #imaginationcrisis www.nordicpath.dk
Our new book København 2.0 – A New Path for the Capital explores how Copenhagen can rethink urban development in an era of climate crisis, housing pressure, and limited resources.
By New Urban Voices.
34 proposals for a new direction for the city.
More info soon. An English version is coming!
Time to cure the #imaginationcrisis
Meanwhile, in Copenhagen
Top reasons I’d stay in Denmark:
1. Active shooter drills aren’t a thing
2. No medical bankruptcy
3. You don’t need a car to exist
4. My kid can nap outside a café in a pram safely
5. Trains between cities
6. Actual sidewalks
7. The military isn’t deployed against civilians (minor plus)
But still roaming the roads - On roads where you need to know the rules and regulations. Seriously bonkers 🙃
What? License free cars? 🫣😳🤯
Copenhagen bicycle culture - Where even the sewer cleaner makes sure that bikes go uninterrupted.
Low friction solution - Keep on biking!
3/3 Street space allocation is one of the most powerful tools cities have, as it produces and reproduces mobility patterns.
Car-centric cities are shaped by policy and design options. That means we can change it. Space for cars induces car use. More space for walking/cycling induce active mobility.
2/3 Resistance is often strongest before implementation and driven by uncertainty, rather than observed outcomes.
When streets become safer, quieter, and more attractive dwell time often increase which can support local retail. This has been observed since Jan Gehl counted pedestrians in the 1970’s
1/3
A 2026 study examined shopkeepers’ views on reallocating street space away from cars.
Key finding: retailers often overestimate how many customers arrive by car and underestimate walking, cycling, and public transport (car users are simply more visible).
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Those are outdated numbers. The number is actually much higher, mostly because of the health benefits, and the 2025 numbers are more than 1.20$
www.trm.dk/temaer/samfu...
A new study finds broad public support for reallocating street space to cycling.
Highest support for replacing car lanes, not pedestrian space.
The main barrier is not public opposition.
It is the continued prioritization of cars in how space is allocated.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...?
It’s not radical to take space away from cars and give it back to people.
Honestly, it’s common sense!
Accepting the status quo is what’s truly radical.
Tak for deling Søren. Helt ny og grøn på Bluesky, men jeg lover der kommer meget mere om byplanlægning, særligt med fokus på mobilitet 🚲
What if just 10% of car trips in Europe shifted to cycling and walking?
€15 billion saved every year. Cleaner air, less congestion, fewer crashes, lower CO₂, better health.
Paris shifted 12–13 percentage points away from cars in under a decade. Cycling now outnumbers cars trips in the city center!
The backalleys of Copenhagen.
I tend to walk in when a gate is open (and it usually is because we live in a high-trust low-crime society).
I always encourage my urban planning students to get lost in the city. The hidden gems often tell amazing stories. Just imagine the life in here 100 yrs ago!
Copenhagen is changing the green wave - from cars to bikes 🚲🚦
15 major streets will now give cyclists coordinated green lights, reducing stops and improving flow. A small but important shift in who the city is designed for.
Read more: www.nordicpath.dk/copenhagen-i...
We often frame mobility as a question of individual choice.
But in reality, mobility is largely determined by the system people are placed within.
Infrastructure, distance, safety, and urban form shape behavior long before individual preference enters the picture.
If we build it, they will come.
