Support road.cc

Like this site? Help us to make it better.

news

"Bike butlers" tackle problem of Copenhagen's illegally parked bikes

Bikes moved, lubed, and tyres pumped up. Imagine that happening here? Us neither.

Cyclists in Copenhagen who park their bicycles illegally are returning to where they left them to discover that city authorities have moved them – and placed them in the nearest purpose-built bike rack, while giving the chain a bit of a lube, pumping up the tyres and leaving a polite note asking them to park in the correct place in future.

The Copenhagenize blog, citing a report from the newspaper Berlingske, says that aim of the initiative, begun in April this year and set to run through to at least January 2011, is to encourage people to use bike racks located by the city’s Metro station, rather than leaving them in places where access may be required by the emergency services.

It’s a typically bike-friendly approach from the Danes to the problem of bikes that cause an obstruction, and one that it’s hard to imagine being employed in say, London. What’s more, the initiative appears to be working – when the project began, 150 bikes a day needed to be moved, but now the number has fallen to between 30 and 50 a day.

"It's about getting people to stop parking their bicycles in areas that emergency service vehicles need to access if there is an incident at a Metro station", said Project Leader Poul Erik Kinimond, who together with a colleague visits the city’s biggest Metro stations to move bicycles around. "We're being called ‘Bicycle Butlers,’" he continued. “People really like what we do."

Kinimond concluded: "It's been a bigger success than I had expected. At the beginning I wasn't keen on rewarding people who parked illegally. The idea was to tackle the problem in a way that wouldn't make people angry because we moved their bicycles.”

His colleague, Morten Schelbech, added: “We haven't had one single person who was angry", and said he didn’t think cyclists would start parking their bikes illegally to benefit from a free oild and getting air pumped in their tyres. "We can recognize the same bicycles that are parked illegally several days in a row. They don't get oil or air," he explained.

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

Add new comment

7 comments

Avatar
kitkat | 13 years ago
0 likes

Imagine that, a carrot instead of a stick. Whatever next?

Avatar
cat1commuter | 13 years ago
0 likes

I imagine they are locked by one of those frame mounted locks which goes through the rear wheel to immobilise the bike. Cycle theft is much worse in the Netherlands.

Avatar
Alankk | 13 years ago
0 likes

I'm still waiting to hear about a clamp down on careless driving... have been waiting for a long time now...

Avatar
simonmb | 13 years ago
0 likes

What a great initiative! Surely there's a lesson here for our own local authorities - being nice pays off!  1

Avatar
jova54 | 13 years ago
0 likes

Do you mean to tell me that they park their bikes and don't lock them?  13

I don't believe you!

Is it April 1st in Denmark??  1

Avatar
STATO replied to jova54 | 13 years ago
0 likes
jova54 wrote:

Do you mean to tell me that they park their bikes and don't lock them?  13

I don't believe you!

Is it April 1st in Denmark??  1

if there are people to move the bikes then id guess they get stored in a manned secure location till they collect them?

Avatar
Simon_MacMichael replied to STATO | 13 years ago
0 likes
STATO wrote:

if there are people to move the bikes then id guess they get stored in a manned secure location till they collect them?

Nope, they just pick them up and put them in the proper bike rack nearby.

Must be nice living in a city where you can leave your bike not fixed to anything and it will still be there when you get back (or at least, be a few yards from where you left it).

It does make you wonder though if everyone is aware of the initiative - it would be terrible if someone who wasn't found their bike was gone and trudged off home disconsolately and didn't bother reporting it - presumable there's been decent publicity and signage put up about it in the appropriate places.

Personally, I was more surprised that Copenhagen has a Metro system - I thought everyone cycled everywhere there  3

Latest Comments