DENMARK GETTING BIKE “SUPER HIGHWAYS”

Despite the seeming quaintness depicted in photography like this, from one of our favorite blogs, Copenhagen Cycle Chic, even in Copenhagenh cars and bikes don’t mix well. Get out into Denmark’s ‘burbs and the speed differential increases, making bike lanes on busy roads less hospitable. So a new network costing $1 million per mile is being added to the extant one, and it’s being dubbed “the cycling superhighway” because it either segregates cars from bikes entirely, with traffic flow designed specifically for bikes, or when cars and bikes are mixed, lights are timed for the leisurely pace of cyclists (discouraging drivers from taking that route). Once the highway network is completed, an estimated 15,000 additional people will switch from driving to biking. And that, say officials, will have a direct impact on the environment, public health, and finances. The bike highway is expected to save Copenhagen’s health care system some $60 million a year. Via NPR.