About

Started in 2011, the Copenhagenize Index is an evidence-based benchmark tracking to what extent the world’s cities have progressed in making cycling safe, convenient, and mainstream. Its purpose is threefold: to recognize leadership, support learning, and provide a transparent framework for planners, advocates, and decision-makers so they might gauge their own progress. The index will help cities diagnose their strengths and weaknesses, set priorities, and learn from the proven practices undertaken by peers to bring forward swift policy improvements.

The 2025 edition marks a significant evolution in the Index’s methodology. Building on more than a decade of comparative research, this edition has introduced a revamped, data-driven framework that balances quantitative measurements with qualitative indicators. Consequently, this approach ensures that assessments are tantamount across regions and grounded in assessable evidence, while at the same time capture the human, cultural, and political dimensions of cycling. As a result, the Copenhagenize Index now serves not only as a global ranking but also as a usable standardized database for cities, advocates and researchers worldwide.

The Copenhagenize Index is not a public policy evaluation tool in the traditional sense as it does not endeavor to audit or validate city strategies or mark off items on policy checklists. Instead, it assesses the cyclability of the city itself: to what extent a person can move around easily, safely, and confidently by bicycle. In analyzing factors beyond the existence of a formal bicycle plan, the Copenhagenize Index seeks to seize the real-world conditions that are currently shaping the cyclist’s experience. Ultimately, it positions the user at the heart of the assessment. It rewards all local actors involved in making the city bikeable for all.

The Copenhagenize Index exists because cycling is more than a means of transportation; it is a lens through which we can grasp how cities work. Evaluating cycling performance ultimately will reveal how cities manage space, prioritize people, and balance mobility with livability. By looking at cycling, the Copenhagenize Index captures a microcosm of urban planning in full action: cities that enable safe and effortless travel by bicycle are usually those that function better for everyone, regardless of how they choose to move about.

Cycling represents one aspect of mobility, mobility reflects the broader system of urban planning, and urban planning determines much of the quality of life in the city. In this sense, the Copenhagenize Index does not turn a blind eye on the larger picture but connects the dots between how the streets are designed, how the policies are implemented, and how the people experience their urban environment every day. Behind every data point lies but a simple question: is this a city where people can circulate freely, healthily, and joyfully?

In order to delve into these interconnections, the 2025 Copenhagenize Index has applied a structured framework of 13 indicators covering infrastructure, usage, governance and perception, and strives to transpose the complex realities of urban cycling into measurable, comparable data.

The 2025 Copenhagenize Index reveals how the world's most bicycle-friendly cities are reshaping mobility. This edition evaluated 100 cities from 44 countries through a rigorous, data-driven methodology, offering one of the most comprehensive global cycling rankings available. The results show a clear trend: cycling is now seen as a key lever for climate action, public health, and quality of life. More cities are moving from isolated projects to long-term cycling strategies embedded in wider sustainable mobility plans. Yet major differences remain, with funding stability, political commitment, and technical capacity defining which cities advance and which fall behind.

The ranking confirms that climate or geography does not determine whether a city can become cycling-friendly. From tropical Singapore and Dubai to winter cities like Helsinki or Québec City, cycling thrives when investment and governance are strong. The fastest-advancing cities treat cycling as a complete mobility system, combining safe infrastructure, clear communication, and consistent monitoring. At the same time, some formal leaders in Europe and America have lost momentum, while cities in the Global South face rising motorization that undermines cycling gains. These patterns highlight the need for reliable cycling data and stronger local capacity to sustain long-term progress.

Cities reaching the Top 30 of the Copenhagenize Index demonstrate the strongest alignment between political vision, design quality, and everyday use. They upgrade corridors with wider bicycle tracks, protected intersections, and bicycle streets, while improving intermodality through secure bicycle parking and well-integrated bike-share systems. Institutionally, they excel with dedicated cycling teams and monitoring frameworks that turn policy into measurable results. The 2025 Index shows that cycling investment is far more than building bicycle lanes: it is a foundation for healthier, more resilient, and more equitable cities – and a defining component of future-ready urban mobility.

What we measure:
3 pillars, 13 indicators

To capture the multiple dimensions of a true cycling city, we have organized the assessment into three pillars:

— Safe & Connected Infrastructure: Bicycle infrastructures, Bicycle parking areas, Traffic calming, Safety.

— Usage and Reach: Bicycle modal share, Modal share growth, Women’s share of bicycle trips, Bike share systems, Cargo bikes.

— Policy and Support: Political commitment, Advocacy, the Image of the bicycle, Urban planning.

Each indicator is derived from either a quantitative metric or a rigorously coded qualitative check:

1. Bicycle infrastructure

Definition: The bicycle infrastructure indicator measures the total length of physically protected cycling space, including fully separated cycle tracks as well as buffered or kerb-protected on-street lanes (one-way or two-way), as a share of the city’s roadway network within the administrative boundary. A high value indicates that cycling infrastructure covers a substantial portion of the street network, providing continuous, low-stress space for everyday bicycle travel and forming the strongest foundation for increasing cycling levels.

Unit: km of protected bicycle infrastructure per 100 km of roadway network.

2. Bicycle Parking

Definition: The bicycle parking indicator measures the total number of public street racks and enclosed bicycle-parking hubs located inside the administrative city boundaries, expressed per 1,000 residents. More secure parking spaces per resident will reduce the risk for theft and make it practical for everyone to cycle to work, school, stores, or transit throughout the city without worrying about where to leave their bike.

Unit: Bicycle parking spaces per 1,000 residents.

3. Traffic Calming

Definition:The traffic calming indicator measures the share of a city's street network where the indicated speed limit is 30 km/h or lower (including 30 and 20 km/h zones and designated bicycle streets), expressed as a percentage of the total roadway length inside the administrative city boundaries. A high percentage will indicate a safer, more comfortable street environment for people walking and cycling.

Unit: % of roadway length.

6. Modal Share Growth

Definition: The five-year modal share growth indicator measures how much a city's bicycle share of all daily trips rose (or fell) between 2019 and 2024. By anchoring the baseline in the last pre-COVID year, we see which cities were able to transform the pandemic debate about livability, 15-minute neighborhoods, and pop-up lanes into lasting, measurable gains for cycling.

Unit: Percentage-point change between bicycle modal share in 2024 and 2019.

7. Women's Share of Bicycle Trips

Definition: This indicator measures how much a city's bicycle share of all daily trips rose (or fell) between 2019 and 2024. By anchoring the baseline in the last pre-COVID year, we see which cities were able to transform the pandemic debate about livability, 15-minute neighborhoods, and pop-up lanes into lasting, measurable gains for cycling.

Unit: % of bicycle trips made by women.

8. Bike Share System

Definition: The bike share indicator evaluates whether a city is operating a comprehensive, year-round bicycle-sharing ecosystem (dock or dockless). We look at how dense the fleet is, how intensely it is used, and whether it connects seamlessly with public transportation:

– Coverage Density Unit: bikes per 1,000 residents.
– Usage Rate Unit: trips per bicycle per day.
– Integration of Public Transportation: checks whether the bike-share app or smart card is fully interoperable with the city's public transportation ticketing, making the bike-share part of a wider mobility ecosystem.

9. Cargo Bikes

Definition: The cargo bike indicator rewards cities where cargo bikes—both formal and informal—have become a part of everyday life for families and last-mile logistics. A cargo bike is any pedal or e-cycle with a built-in load capacity (box, long-tail, front-loader, trailer, trike). Regular bicycles with a delivery backpack are excluded from this.

– Household Purchase Subsidy: checks whether the city offers any rebates or grants for residents buying a cargo bike for everyday travel.
– Logistics/Business Subsidy or Dedicated Support: checks whether the city offers grants, tax breaks, or business-support programs for firms adopting cargo bikes.
– Cargo Bike Commercial or Informal Adoption: checks whether national/international parcel firms, local businesses, supermarkets, municipal services, or a widespread DIY culture operate cargo bike fleets on city streets.
– Supportive Infrastructure/Standards: checks whether the city has adopted specific measures for cargo bikes such as curb-level loading bays, parking norms that specify extra-wide racks or marked bays, and designated guidelines for cycle streets that are wide enough for cargo bikes.

10. Political Commitment

Definition: The political commitment indicator measures how much money the city government sets aside for investment in cycling for every resident each year, averaged over the most recent five-year period. A high figure signals a stronger and more sustained political commitment to make cycling safer and easier.

Unit: € / capita / year, based on the sum of the cycling budget over the last 5 fiscal years.

11. Advocacy

Definition: The advocacy indicator gauges the strength and civic influence of local cycling advocacy groups by checking whether an active, city-wide NGO both engages with the public and has a seat at the policy table. Strong advocacy helps keep cycling on the political agenda and translates community needs into concrete action.

– Active Organization: checks whether at least one city-wide cycling NGO or federation exists and publishes regular updates (on websites, newsletters, social media).
– Public Mobilization: checks whether the NGO has run at least 2 rides, campaigns, or events within the last 12 months.
– Policy Involvement: checks whether the NGO sits on an official committee or has contributed to cycling policy within the last 24 months.

12. Image of the Bicycle

Definition: The image of the bicycle indicator checks whether the bicycle is recognized and promoted as a normal everyday means of transport for people of all ages and social groups. A city scores higher when local media speak positively about the utility of cycling, when it has created a clear public brand for its backbone cycling network, and when it has endorsed school-based learn-to-ride programs.

– Media Tone: analyzes cycling-related headlines published in each of the city's three largest online news outlets over the past 24 months. Each headline is classified as positive, neutral, or negative.
– Bicycle Brand/Network Identity: checks whether the city has developed and publicly uses a distinct visual identity (logo, color scheme, signage) for its main cycle network or city-wide cycling promotion.
– School Cycling Education: checks whether the city is participating in, or has adopted, an official national or regional learn-to-ride program providing on-bike training for children in schools.

13. Urban Planning

Definition: The urban planning indicator assesses the institutional capacity and planning quality that has sustained the city’s cycling policy over time. It evaluates whether the city has the essential strategic and technical instruments in place to plan, design, deliver, and monitor protected cycling infrastructures in a consistent and measurable way.

– Unit: km of protected cycling infrastructure built within the last three calendar years per 100 km of roadway networks.
– Cycling Plan/Strategy: verifies that a dedicated cycling plan, active mobility plan, or mobility plan with a full cycling chapter has been published or updated within the past 5 years.
– Dedicated Cycling Unit: checks whether the municipal organization chart includes a staffed office or team whose primary mandate is cycling infrastructures and policy.
– Technical Design Guidebook: looks for a city-issued cycling/street designed guide that is rooted in best practices, specifying layouts, dimensions, and treatments for protected lanes, intersections, parking areas, etc., and used to approve projects.
– Monitoring and Reporting: checks whether the city is publishing at least annual or bi-annual reports, progress reports, or open datasets that track cycling infrastructure, counts, or KPIs.

The 2025 Index ranks 100 cities which have been carefully selected in a transparent, multi-step process. The selection started off with a list of all urban areas of more than 250,000 inhabitants, while also including capital cities with smaller populations when their cycling modal share had become significant. A series of filters was then applied, as follows:

— Cycling Focus:
Highest bicycle modal share in each country (up to 5 cities per country).

— Momentum:
Preference is given to cities that have been increasing their modal share since 2019.

— Data Integrity:
Cities are excluded when essential data is missing.

— Global Balance:
The final list is adjusted to ensure representation from every world region.

For each indicator, we convert the raw value into a 0–100 scale:

— Quantitative Indicators are min-max normalized: the best observed value scores 100, the worst scores 0, with all others falling proportionally in between these values.

— Qualitative Indicators use predefined point bands which are also mapped in the 0–100 range.

A city’s composite score is a simple average of its 13 indicator scores, giving equal weight to each dimension. Composite scores are then sorted from highest to lowest so as to form the final ranking. The result is a balanced, methodologically transparent index highlighting both the established leaders and the fast-rising contenders, providing every city with a clear, actionable roadmap for improvement.

Copenhagenize is an industry-leading company and an international reference for all subjects relating to bicycle mobility, working for cities and regions to provide a wide-range of professional support.

What we measure:
3 pillars, 13 indicators