Executive summary With about six hundred thousand inhabitants in its city area used to refer to the price that the dealer actually pays for and almost two million in its greater metropolitan area, the vehicle when it is imported (that is, the invoice price Copenhagen is the largest city in Denmark. of the vehicle from the manufacturer). Added to this price are import customs (10 percent for vehicles manufactured There is no question that Copenhagen is a trailblazer in outside the EU) and VAT (25 percent). The high taxes on cars smart and sustainable city developments. To find evidence in Denmark were implemented by the Danish government of this, one need look no further than the honors that the city a long time ago. They have decisively influenced citizens’ was awarded in 2014. The European Union named the city its commuting behavior, and they have especially strengthened European Green Capital; Monocle proclaimed Copenhagen Copenhagen’s biking culture. the Most Livable City in the World; at the Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona, Copenhagen took home the To fulfill the objectives that it has set concerning soft mobility, World Smart Cities Award in the Best Project category for Copenhagen has already tested many projects and solutions. the Copenhagen Connecting project. Among the contenders Many of them are the result of a public-private collaboration to be the most advanced city in the world in terms of smart between fourteen companies and two universities. These city technologies, Copenhagen wins hands down. solutions involve prioritizing buses and cyclists on roads and using data-gathering devices and smart lighting at junctions as Copenhagen’s smart city approach is strongly anchored in well as other technologies that could complement the intelligent the three main objectives of achieving carbon neutrality by traffic solutions that are being implemented in Singapore. 2025; creating a greener, more sustainable, and more livable capital city; and supporting economic growth. Copenhagen A good example of mobility-related innovation is Copenhagen has launched myriad projects to achieve its targets. One Intelligent Traffic Solutions (CITS). This platform consists major example here is the Strategic Climate Action Plan, of a network of Wi-Fi access points that can geolocate Wi- which encompasses many diversified initiatives and sets the Fi-enabled devices on the streets without compromising target of achieving a 20 percent CO reduction by 2015.2 privacy. The data gathered through the system enables officials to monitor traffic in real time, and it is stimulating Denmark does not face the land shortage issues that, for the design of transport-related tools and apps. CITS can instance, Singapore does (see Chapter 5). The country has a be considered indicative of the Danish tendency toward common view on traffic reduction as a source for increasing tripartite collaboration between universities, businesses, and sustainability and enhancing citizens’ quality of life. Moreover, government. More broadly, Copenhagen has recently become Copenhagen faces challenges similar to those of Singapore, a successful hub in the high-tech startup environment. as the metropolis’s population is rapidly increasing. Denmark is well known as a “bike nation.” Over one Copenhagen’s aim to become carbon neutral by 2025 has million journeys are taken by bike in Copenhagen every spurred the development of a new intelligent traffic systems day. Continuous efforts are being made to provide better framework for the very near future. The framework builds on conditions for cyclists—for example, maintaining road Copenhagen’s Climate Plan 2025, and one of its goals is to surfaces, creating dedicated cycle paths, providing bike ensure that 75 percent of all trips within the city should be parking, and integrating bicycles into multimodal solutions. taken by bike, public transport, or on foot. In 2014, the Danish capital installed twenty-two thousand Among the objectives mentioned above, climate action and smart streetlights in its streets (half of its lighting needs traffic systems receive the biggest share of funds. They are at this time). Their main smart feature involves varying the fields where there is the greatest potential for innovation and luminosity that they produce. The lampposts detect the where solutions can be delivered in the short-term future. arrival of a cyclist and react by increasing the intensity of the light, before decreasing it as the cyclist moves away. So far, Biking. Denmark’s tax system is certainly not neutral. In the scheme has produced a 76 percent saving in the bill for the Danish auto import business, the term “steel price” is public lighting. 112 Quélin and Smadja | HEC PARIS | SMART CITIES | The sustainable program of six leading cities | 2021