Wellness is a fundamental aspect of a resident’s quality of life in a city and a top priority for local governments—the level of government closest to people’s daily lives. Broadly, urban wellness encompasses physical, mental, and social well-being for the city’s inhabitants. Around the world, local governments are increasingly launching a range of programs to address one or more of these critical aspects of wellness.
This article introduces the cases of social urbanism in Medellín, Colombia, and cycling culture in the City of Copenhagen, Denmark, to illustrate how local governments can effectively enhance their residents’ well-being.
Medellín: social urbanism
In the early 2000s, Medellín City Hall decided to tackle the main social conflict the city had experienced from 1980 to 1990 (armed militias, drug trafficking, and street violence) by implementing social urbanism—a model designed to combat inequality by redistributing public investments to underserved neighborhoods.
Between 2004 and 2011, the city launched a series of Integrated Urban Projects (Proyectos Urbanos Integrales). These initiatives introduced educational, cultural, and social programs alongside physical transformations in the northern neighborhoods, including new community facilities, housing, and upgraded public spaces.
The Integrated Urban Projects aimed to cultivate cultural capital in both tangible and intangible forms through strategic urban interventions, such as parks, schools, public libraries, and massive outdoor escalators that traverse the steep terrain. By creating safe public spaces where residents can play and socialize, these projects significantly enhanced the city’s overall urban wellness, with a particular focus on social cohesion.
A crucial source of funding for these transformations is Empresas Públicas de Medellín, a publicly-owned utility company that transfers up to 30% of its financial surplus to the municipality for social investment.
The results have been staggering: between 2002 and 2010, the poverty rate declined by 39%. Furthermore, the homicide rate per 100,000 inhabitants plummeted from 395 in 1991 to just 13 in 2023.
Among these urban interventions, the two most noteworthy are the Metrocable System and the Library Parks.
The metrocable system
Complementing other policies, Medellín’s Metrocable was launched in 2004 as the world’s first aerial tramway. Fully integrated into a city’s surface metro system, its primary goal was to connect vulnerable, impoverished neighborhoods, historically isolated by steep mountainous terrain, to the city center and the broader mobility network.
Prior to the Metrocable, traditional public transport struggled to serve these areas due to the mountainous terrain, irregular street patterns, and dense housing. The Metrocable offered an affordable, high-speed alternative with comparatively low construction costs and minimal particulate emissions.
To date, the network spans 15km and records over 14 million annual passengers. It has reduced travel times, turning a two-hour commute that required multiple fares into a 30-minute journey on a single ticket, increasing accessibility for the local population. More importantly, it physically and symbolically integrated previously marginalized “no-go” areas into the rest of the city, bridging the physical and social divide. By dismantling geographical barriers and social stigmas, the system dramatically improved the city’s social wellness.
Source: World Resources Institute
Library parks
Medellín’s Library parks (Parques biblioteca) are other examples of the accessible and innovative use of public space. They were conceived to create public spaces for youth that blend education, culture, and community gathering, while physically symbolizing the city’s rebirth.
The city constructed 26 Library parks in historically marginalized communities. These complexes feature public library structures surrounded by open green spaces. Crucially, residents participated in every stage of their development, from selecting books and programming schedules to determining the governance systems and architectural styles.
Today, these Library Parks act as powerful community catalysts for urban wellness, hosting community theatres and events that foster social interaction.
“It is important to consider Medellín’s context at the time. In the ‘90s, our city suffered the direst urban violence known in the western hemisphere, with more than 380 murders per 100,000 inhabitants. So, we needed spaces for encounter, for coexistence, and opportunity. We needed to combine education, culture, and encounter, with a special space for our youth, and also a strong and clear message of how our city was going to be reborn,” said David Escobar-Arango, the Director of the city’s Library Parks
Source: ArchDaily and System of Library Parks of Medellín
Copenhagen: cycling culture
The City of Copenhagen is globally renowned for its cycling culture. By prioritizing cycling, the city not only helps residents improve their health and cultivate active lifestyles but also contributes significantly to a cleaner environment.
While Copenhagen was car-dependent in the 1970s, the city sought to decrease congestion and car use by promoting cycling as a primary mode of transport. This was achieved by focusing on three pillars: safety, convenience, and ease of use. To support this, Copenhagen has constructed extensive infrastructure, including specialized bicycle and pedestrian bridges and dedicated “bicycle streets.”
Furthermore, the city collaborates with neighboring municipalities to build five cycle superhighways. Totaling over 850km, these highways create a network of commuter routes that make long-distance cycling to work or school safe and efficient, effectively integrating cycling into the fabric of daily life.
To ensure the safety of its citizens, the city has adopted several innovative measures:
- Physical separation: constructing unidirectional cycling tracks separated from motorists by physical barriers.
- Intersection priority: implementing a system where cyclists stop directly in front of cars at red lights, increasing visibility, and allowing them to enter the intersection first.
- “Pre-green” signals: traffic lights that allow cyclists to make right turns before motorists.
- Traffic calming: decreasing speed limits on major roads and forbidding heavy goods vehicles on specific routes.
- Safety lane lights: special placement of lane lights that flash when cyclists are in a dangerous area (before intersections and along the edges of bike lanes).
- The Safe Routes to School program: a dedicated program that encourages children to cycle or walk to school through traffic calming and physical separation.
To maintain this momentum, Copenhagen conducts a study every two years called the “Bicycle Account” to gauge progress and citizen satisfaction. For example, the 2022 account showed that recent investments in bicycle parking boosted satisfaction from 29% in 2012 to 47% in 2022.
Source: Urban Sustainability Exchange (left) and Visit Copenhagen (right)
The impact
The success of these initiatives is reflected in the city’s impressive statistics. Over the past 15 years, the overall share of trips by bicycle has remained consistently high, between 25% and 31%, with a remarkable 42% of all commutes to work or education now taking place on two wheels. For nearly half the population (48%), cycling is the preferred mode of transport.
Beyond commuting, the culture has fostered an active lifestyle: 77% of residents cycle several times a week in their spare time, and 24% cycle for leisure, either alone or through a club. Ultimately, 75% of residents agree that this pervasive cycling culture has a profoundly positive impact on urban life in Copenhagen.
Source: Tools of Change
Urban wellness
From an urban wellness perspective, the benefits are both mental and physical.
- Research shows a direct link between cycling and a heightened sense of happiness among citizens, largely due to increased autonomy and reduced commuting stress.
- Cycling reduces the community’s disease burden by 19.5 Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) annually and results in millions fewer sick leave days for those who commute by bike.
- Citizens benefit from significantly cleaner air and reduced exposure to urban pollution in a city less reliant on cars.
- This shift also supports environmental wellness, saving over 90,000 tonnes of CO₂ annually.
Through these measures, the government of Copenhagen demonstrates how local governments can use cycling infrastructure not just for transport but as a foundational tool for enhancing overall urban well-being.
Conclusion
The cities of Medellín and Copenhagen demonstrate that urban wellness is achieved through intentional, people-centric design. Whether bridging social divides through Medellín’s Metrocables and Library parks or fostering physical and environmental health through Copenhagen’s cycling culture, these cities show that infrastructure is a vital tool for well-being. While their interventions differ, their success stems from a shared commitment to prioritizing public space and community needs. By investing in inclusive, sustainable urban environments, local governments can improve the quality of life for all residents, showing that a well-designed city is the foundation of a healthy society.
