Miljøtema, 25 – Roads to Healthier Traffic – The Danes and their transport habits

Roads to Healthier Traffic

The Danes and their transport habits

Today, more than half of the Danish households own a car. Ten per cent have two or more cars. A total of 1.9 million cars are registered as private cars in Denmark – corresponding to 367 private cars per 1,000 inhabitants. Since 1992 the number of private cars has increased by 18 per cent. By way of comparison, there are almost 4.2 million bicycles in Denmark, and, thus, statistically almost everybody in Denmark owns a bicycle. On an average, every Danish adult goes approx. 400 km a year by bike – and mostly for short trips.

figure showing Private cars in Denmark '93-'03

figure showing Kilometres per day and Trips per day

moving around more quickly

Every Dane above the age of ten travels almost 15,000 km per year. About half of this distance is by car, six percent by bus, eight per cent by train, three per cent by bike or moped, and one percent on foot (see figure on page 6). We are moving around more and more. The number of kilometres we travel has risen by more than 50 per cent since 1980. However, the time we spend travelling has remained almost unchanged – we move around more quickly.

About half of all trips are by car, for 15 per cent we take the bicycle, and we walk 15 per cent. People who have a car travel much more than people who do not have a car.

The average transport distance per Dane is approx. 36 km per day. People with a car travel 37 km per day, and people without a car travel only 21 km per day. In households that own two or more cars the average distance is approx. 50 km each day.

Photo: BAM