Historical transport policy developments : technical report for Stage 3 city, Copenhagen:D4.2

When, why and how was Copenhagen able to (re-)invent itself successfully into “the bicycle city”? To what extent are these developments replicable in other cities in CREATE and beyond? This report both highlights and accounts for the process of gradual yet transformative change, which has characterized transport policy developments in Copenhagen and its metropolitan area over the past four decades. It provides some explanation as to why and how a sustainable urban transport agenda emerged as a major political priority and flagship initiative. It also suggests that the situation is not as clear-cut as suggested by political discourses: pro-car policies and car use have not been completely abandoned in Copenhagen, and similarly, sustainable mobility policies are being strengthened beyond the city’s limits. In this perspective, the analytical framework developed as part of WP4, which combines the public policy approach with the urban governance approach (see WP4 D4.1 report), proved particularly useful in order to examine the ambiguous relationship between policy discourses on the one hand, and policy outcomes on the other hand. More than in any other cases studied in WP4, the Copenhagen case confirms the need to examine policy implementation dynamics in order to make sense of the choice and selection of policy instruments, including the role attributed from an early stage on to communication-based policy tools