This is one of those opinion pieces where the title says it all.  I won’t go on about it because of the whole “preaching to the choir” thing.  But I wanted to point out the outgoing Boston Bike Czar’s comments in regards to Copenhagen.  Having spent a bunch of time searching Copenhagen for the the elusive “Sperm Bike” last spring, it’s truly amazing to think that Copenhagen wasn’t always the mecca of bike commuting.

“In a lot of ways, we’re just like Copenhagen in terms of our layout,” Freedman told me Tuesday. “People think Copenhagen’s always been like it is, or they say, ‘Oh, that’s Europe,’ but 30 years ago, trying to cycle there was like it was in Boston four years ago.”

Boston’s share of commuters who cycle to work and school, which rose from 1 percent in 2000 to 2 percent by 2009, seems pitiful compared with the 35 percent of such commutes in Copenhagen in 2010. Butexperts say Boston and Cambridge, because of their density and the institutions in their midst, are primed for a major increase.

“A bicycle track down Massachusetts Avenue would be perfect, just perfect,” said urban planner John Pucher of Rutgers University. “It would connect Harvard and MIT to the universities in [Boston] and create this great corridor of people going back and forth on bicycles.”

The idea that Boston could someday in the near future be on par with Copenhagen is tremendously exciting.  I can’t echo enough many of the similarities between Boston and Copenhagen that this piece points out.  Beyond that, you can’t deny the energy and feel that a city that is SO bike friendly offers.  Vibrance is truly the correct word!

A vibrant Boston needs major avenues for bikes – Opinion – The Boston Globe.