“The Copenhagenize Index 2015 – the world’s most comprehensive inventory and ranking of bicycle-friendly cities. As with the 2011 and 2013 Indexes, it was a long, arduous process but it was, of course, inspiring, thought-provoking, and at times, surprising. One thing is certain – we are always surprised. Every year, the Copenhagenize Index evolves. A few things have changed with the 2015 version. In 2011, we ranked 80 global cities; in 2013, we ranked 150. This year, we really honed in on the metropolitan cities of the world, those with a regional population over 600,000 (with a few exceptions because of their political and regional importance and to keep things interesting). This factor allowed us to focus on – and rank – 122 cities for the 2015 Index. We added a few cities like Ljubljana and Strasbourg, but largely the list remains unchanged. The Index consumes a lot of time…The bicycle makes sense in cities. Investment in bicycle infrastructure is a modern and intelligent move for a city to make. Plenty of research shows the social, economic, environmental, and health benefits from urban cycling. Studies from Denmark tell us that for every kilometre cycled, society enjoys a net profit of 23 cents, whereas for every kilometre driven by car we suffer a net loss of -16 cents. With rising urbanisation, our cities need modern mobility solutions and the bicycle proves time and again that it can offer results.

The 2015 Index – As with the two previous Indexes, this year offers up more surprises. We always think we have a pretty good idea of what the results will be, but cities continue to shine brighter. Copenhagen overtook Amsterdam for first place, but it’s still those two cities that dominate. The rest of the list, however, was totally shaken up. New cities took the Top 20 by storm, and at the expense of others. Buenos Aires stomps the competition (bonus points!) and nails the South American continent, at the expense of Rio de Janeiro, who seem to have lost interest and subsequently dropped out of the Top 20. Europe continues to have a strong presence, though Germany is slacking — Berlin falls, Munich slips off the list entirely and Hamburg is hanging on by a thread. Asia is also relaxing a bit with Tokyo and Nagoya exiting the list. Montréal clings desperately to 20th and now have North American competition in the form of Minneapolis who debut on the Copenhagenize Index – although we can see other American cities wangling their way up the list in the wings.  The most exciting aspect of the Index is seeing the newcomers to the list. The Emerging Bicycle Cities and the Bubblers are not just transforming their own urban landscape, they are inspiring cities around the world in showing what is possible in a short amount of time. These are the visionaries.”