Video: New cycling bridge takes Copenhagen's legions of bike riders across city's harbour

Cyclists in Copenhagen now have their own bridge to cross the city’s harbour. The Cykelslangen – in English, cycle snake – bridge connects Vesterbro and Islandsbrygge and provides a much-needed, safe link for those on two wheels.

Built of steel and with a striking orange surface, the bridge was designed by the Dissing + Weitling architectural practice, is 220 metres long and 4 metres wide. Here’s a video taken by a rider travelling across it.

According to an article on the website of the Danish Architecture Centre, city authorities have set a goal for half of all journeys in Copenhagen to work or places of study to be made by bike by the end of next year, and for 90 per cent of cyclists to feel safe in traffic by 2025.

It adds that the new bridge will help realise that goal by taking riders away from traffic, pedestrians and staircases, all of which had to be negotiated on the previous route, as well as providing a quicker way across the city.

Writing about the bridge for The Guardian, Sandra Hoj says: “When you think about it, the concept of an elevated road is not even that far-fetched: we have been doing this for cars for decades. It is odd, even, that it took us this long to get one, considering its overwhelmingly positive reception.”

Over the past couple of years, plans have been drawn up for a series of elevated cycle lanes running alongside railway lines in London, but in January the city’s mayor, Boris Johnson, said the proposals would not be adopted, describing them as “fantastically expensive.”