York pedestrians, cyclists and motorists are often at loggerheads. But PAUL OSBORNE believes we could learn from a European city which has travelled down a more peaceful road.

SEVEN years ago, I took a party of York schoolchildren to visit Odense in Denmark on a fact-finding mission for a new safe routes to schools project. This month I returned to check up on its progress towards becoming Denmark's leading cycling city and I was astounded by what I saw.

I already knew about the plans for 350km of bike paths - most of them separated by a kerb from the road - and that cycling levels were increasing while cyclist accidents were falling, largely because of its renowned safe routes to schools programme.

What I wasn't prepared for was the creative ingenuity of the city's planners who are able to sell the message that cycling is good for you to almost every interest group you could mention - young mothers, traders, tourists, immigrants and, significantly, motorists.

Yes, even the city's motorists support the city's pro-cycling policies which include cyclist and pedestrian priority at junctions, green lights for bikes ahead of cars and, sometimes, removal of car parking spaces for new bike routes.

The reason is clear. While car traffic has grown by 25 per cent since 1979, cycling has increased by 100 per cent. Half of trips in the city centre are now made by bike and this has been a major factor behind free-flowing traffic on the city's main road network, even at rush hour.

The city centre is an affluent haven of traffic-free tranquillity and the lack of car access appears not to have affected the wide range of city centre traders.

One of the city's latest cycling facilities is automated parking. For about 50p you can leave your bike for three hours and retrieve it by flashing your bar coded ticket past an electronic eye.

Other innovations include a bicycle barometer which counts daily cyclist movements and displays the updated figure as you pass.

Along certain commuter routes, traffic lights turn to green if the cyclist maintains a healthy 22kph (12mph). This has been so successful it has cut cyclist's delays by 15 per cent and encouraged one third of users to cycle faster. The changes have been aesthetic too. Odense architects have installed state-of-the-art cycle shelters, illuminated like the civic buildings with colourful uplighters.

As a British cyclist in Denmark, it's a treat to feel the bonhomie of cycling through a busy intersection while outnumbering the cars, and then watching them look for you in their wing mirror as they wait for you to pass before they turn across the bike lane.

But the real pleasure is finding that someone has thought about your needs, and then acted on them.

Like the person who decided to add the drinking fountain outside the railway station's access-controlled bike parking area; or the designer of the chic, sculptured air pumps strategically placed near the central bike routes; or the traffic engineer who added 'cyclists permitted' signs at the exit point of every one-way street.

No, it hasn't made a difference to the number of accidents.

In fact, Odense provides the living proof that cycling can be a truly safe activity. In the mid-1980s, traffic accidents involving children were reduced by a massive 85 per cent simply by treating accident blackspots with child-friendly road safety measures.

Since then accidents have been reduced further and half of the city's schoolchildren feel safe enough to cycle to school each day.

The investment in safe routes actually saves money, because fewer children require free or subsidised buses to get to school.

Specific schemes, such as bright blue cycle lanes painted across large junctions, have cut cyclist casualties by up to 50 per cent. Cyclists represent 22 per cent of all trips made in the city but only 18 per cent of the casualties - statistics that any road safety officer in this country would happily retire on.

In York, cyclists and pedestrians are pitched as bitter rivals.

The opposite is true in Denmark where the priority rules for vulnerable road users benefit both groups equally.

I saw no evidence of illegal pavement cycling, probably because the cycle paths were so attractive.

Nor were cycle paths or pavements blocked by parked cars because, I was told, most drivers cycle at least once a day and appreciate the frustration of such actions.

In fact, pedestrians are benefiting just as much from farsighted planning including special "countdown" signal crossings which indicate how many seconds are left to cross - or to wait.

Councillors in York will meet soon to discuss a new strategy for cycling. York and Odense have much in common: both are of similar size, both are flat, both have leading universities and high tech industries, both face the challenge of managing traffic from new developments. Yet cycling levels are three times higher in the Danish city.

So what can we learn from the Danes? Troels Andersen, a traffic engineer with the city council, shared with me four critical lessons:

Plan well ahead for cycling in all new developments, including land purchase for high quality, sustainable, transport links

Win political consensus and support on the basis that cycling has a key part to play in cutting traffic and improving the quality of life

Ensure there is a generous annual budget allocated for cycling projects

Prepare for the long term - the city's 350km cycle network is part of a 30-year programme

While Britain struggles to catch up with Danish cycling infrastructure, the next step for the Danes is to market cycling more effectively.

Recent schemes include free bike trailers loaned to kindergarten parents - there are now three times as many in use compared to other Danish cities - and competitions designed to encourage feedback from citizens such as 'Name the worst bike route in Odense' with the promise of remedial work for the winning entry.

A new project involving rural car commuters and folding bikes is also about to be launched.

To hear more about Denmark's leading cycling city (and what York can learn from it) plus efforts to make America's cities more bike-friendly, then come to an evening presentation organised by Sustrans at the Friends Meeting House, Friargate, York, at 7.30pm on Thursday. Cycling developments in Odense can be followed by visiting www.cyclecity.dk

Paul Osborne is project director of Safe Routes To Schools for the sustainable transport charity Sustrans, based at Fulford Cross, York.

Updated: 08:58 Tuesday, September 23, 2003