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Copenhagen keeps car-free and anti-crime nightlife zones

Copenhagen Police is to retain so-called ‘nightlife zones’, alongside a ban on driving in the zones at night, until June 2025.

Published: 31 August 2023 15:52 CEST

Copenhagen keeps car-free and anti-crime nightlife zones

Copenhagen's Vestergade is one of the areas affected by the nightlife zones. Photo: Olafur Steinar Gestsson/Ritzau Scanpix

The limit on cars on narrow streets in areas thronging with bars and clubs was first introduced on June 1st in a bid to crack down on nighttime public disturbances.

People with certain types of convictions, such as violence or weapons possession, and bans from nightlife are not permitted within the zones or to visit bars or other establishments there between midnight and 5am.

The affected streets are all located in lively parts of the capital designated as “nightlife zones”, which police monitor closely, and violations are subject to a 3,000 kroner fine.

The zones, initially in place until mid-September, will now be enforced for the next two years, police said in a statement on Thursday.

The nightlife zones are located near Copenhagen’s City Hall, specifically Gothersgade and Vesterbrogade, along with Vestergade and Kødbyen, the old slaughterhouse neighbourhood in the popular Vesterbro district.

The non-driving zones include most of Nørregade; Gothersgade between Kongens Nytorv and Kongens Have, and an areas around Studiestræde and Vester Voldgade.

The crackdown does not affect residents, taxis or essential transport such as trash collection, ambulances and delivery vehicles.

“In a nightlife zone we are able to send away people with previous convictions for things like violence in nightlife, or who have created disturbances in nightlife in the past,” senior officer Tommy Laursen with Copenhagen Police said in the statement.

“This is therefore a good tool for us in our work to improve security for nightlife guests and residents in the area,” he said.

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Where Malmö plans to place its first three Copenhagen Metro stops

Malmö and Copenhagen have been pushing for an Öresund Metro linking the two cities since at least 2011, but so far neither the Swedish government nor the Danish one have committed to stumping up their share of the roughly 30 billion Danish kroner (47 billion Swedish kronor, €4 billion) required.

Malmö hopes the Swedish government will take a decision on the project this autumn, and in preparation, the city’s planning board last Thursday took a decision on where the first three stops of the Öresund Metro should be placed.

They have selected Fullriggaren (currently a bus stop at the outermost tip of the city’s Västra Hamnen district), Stora Varvsgatan, in the centre of Västra Hamnen, and Malmö’s Central Station, as the locations of the first three stops, after which the idea is to extend the metro into the city.

Stefana Hoti, the Green Party councillor who chairs the planning committee, said that the new Fehmarn Belt connection between the Danish island of Lolland and Germany, which is expected to come into use in 2029, will increase the number of freight trains travelling through Copenhagen into Sweden making it necessary to build a new route for passengers.

Part of the cost, she said, could come from tolls levied on car and rail traffic over the existing Öresund Bridge, which will soon no longer need to be used to pay off loans taken to build the bridge more than 20 years ago.

“The bridge will be paid off in the near future. Then the tolls can be used to finance infrastructure that strengthens the entire country and creates space for more freight trains on the bridge,” Hoti told the Sydsvenskan newspaper.

According to planning documents given out by the city planning authorities, the stop at Fullrigagaren would be called Galeonen and would be roughly, the one at Stora Varvsgatan will be called Masttorget, and the third stop would be called Malmö Central.

Source: Malmö Kommun

After Fullriggaren the next stop would be at Lergravsparken in the Amagerbro neighbourhood, which connects with the current M2 line, after which the there will be four new stops on the way to Copenhagen Central, including DR Byen on the current M1 line.

The hope is that the Öresund Metro will reduce the journey time between Copenhagen Central and Malmö Central from 40 minutes to 25 minutes.

Source: Oresunds Metro

But that’s not all. Excavating a tunnel between Malmö and Copenhagen will produce large amounts of earth, which the architect firm Arkitema has proposed should be used to extend Malmö’s Västra Hamnen district out into the sea, creating a new coastal district called Galeonen, meaning “The Galleon”, centred on the Fullriggaren Metro stop.

This project is similar to the Lynetteholm project in Copenhagen, which will use earth excavated for the Copenhagen Metro extension to build a peninsular in front of Copenhagen Harbour, providing housing and protecting the city from rising sea levels.

Rather than producing a sea wall to protect the new area from rising sea levels, Arkitema and its partner, the Danish engineering firm COWI, have proposed a new coastal wetland area.

“Instead of building a wall, we extended the land out into the sea. Then a green area is formed which is allowed to flood, and over time it will become a valuable environment, partly as a green area for Malmö residents, partly because of the rich biodiversity that will be created there,” Johanna Wadhstorp, an architect for Arkitema based in Stockholm, told the Sydsvenskan newspaper.

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