Transfer potential from car to green transport modes

The municipality of Copenhagen is determined to increase green and space-efficient transport modes. The political goal for the municipality is a modal share of driven traffic in Copenhagen of at least 1/3 by bike, 1/3 by public transport and 1/3 by car by 2025. A way to reach the goals is among other things by improving the accessibility of combination journeys where cycling is combined with train journeys.

The purpose of the study was to shed light on the possible potential in transferring car trips to combination journeys by bike and train in the capital area of Denmark. Secondly, the purpose was to shed light on how to contribute to this type of trend as well as the type of initiatives best suited to do so. This was among other things carried out by researching examples and data from the Netherlands.

The study will be part of the background knowledge for the cycle parking priority plan 2018-2025 for the Municipality of Copenhagen. In addition, the municipality hoped that the study would form the basis for a strengthened collaboration between municipalities, transport service organisations and other partners with interest in traffic conditions in the regional network of Greater Copenhagen across Øresund.

Traffic modelling
Artelia has estimated the maximum transfer potential primarily based on data from Transportvane undersøgelsen (Danish survey on transport habits) and based on traffic modelling with OTM (Danish Ørestad Traffic Model).

In the calculations of the maximum realistic potential for more cycle and train combination journeys, different approaches were incorporated. These were used to illustrate the expected increase in number of new train journeys in consequence of the improved cycle parking facilities at the train stations as well as the expected decrease in number of car trips.

Through the traffic modelling calculations and use of Dutch experience with specific improvements to cycle parking facilities, Artelia could demonstrate that the result is both a shift in transport distribution for the whole journey as well as more journeys with public transport. The increase in connection journeys by bike is the result of the combination of new train trips and existing train trips, where the bike replaces another transport mode to the station as a result of improved facilities for cyclists.