The City of Copenhagen released their 2020 budget earlier this month. The agreement secured by the parties Socialdemokratiet, Enhedslisten, Alternativet, Radikale, Socialistisk Folkeparti and Venstre, aims to deliver public projects spanning from car tariffs to new schools and wind turbines in a bid to become the world’s first CO2-neutral capital by 2025.
Bicyclists can look forward to an allocation of €13.3 million towards new infrastructure projects and improvements. This includes projects to improve safety on school roads and increases city-wide cycling capacity. An additional €5 million has been set aside for upgrading two cycle highways and to build a new bike path in Husum. Traffic safety will be improved on Frederiksborgvej with an allocation of nearly a million Euros and bicycle capacity is set to be increased with proposals on Torvegade and an allocation of €130,000.
On the other hand, the City’s pledge to reduce CO2 emissions disincentives to car ownership have come in the form of increased cost of residential parking permits. Most cars will see an increase in permit cost from €200 to €500 per year. Cars that pollute less will see an increase from €133 to €266 while electric cars will see the least substantial increase, from only €1.30 to €2.60. Electric car owners will also benefit from free on-street car parking. While these are proportionally large increases in cost, the overall financial burden of car-ownership is still low. It is left to be seen whether these increases are significant enough to indeed discourage car-use and ownership. Tariffs should be focusing on continuing to nudge and encourage the population further toward bicycle adaptation and usage.