The Life-Sized City Blog

Row of new bikes for sale outside a local bike shop in Copenhagen. As one might expect in a cycling nation, bike sales are healthy. According to the Danish bicycle industry, the good people of Denmark bought 500,000 new bikes in 2006. Not bad for a country of 5.3 million people. It appears to be new record. We here at Copenhagen Bike Culture Blog are guessing that the number will increase in 2007 since we seem to be seeing a lot of new bikes on the streets. The average price of a bike in Denmark in 2006 is 2900 kroner [€386 / $580], which is up from 2500 kroner in 2005. The increase in sales causes a boom for bike workshops, too. While Danes [along with the Dutch] cycle more than any other nation - 1000 km a year per capita - most people can't be bothered repairing their bikes themselves. Whether it is a flat tyre or a rusty chain, Danes prefer dropping them off at a local bike shop. The result is a shortage of bike mechanics in the Danish kingdom. It is estimated that 100 bike me

15 accidents per year in Copenhagen's most dangerous intersection has been reduced to just one. The results are quite concrete after Copenhagen City redesigned the intersection at Gyldenloevsgade and Soegade by The Lakes in inner Copenhagen a year ago. In Copenhagen, many intersections have both traffic lights for cars and separate ones for bikes . The solution was coordinating the bike traffic lights to change to green a couple of seconds before the cars. A simple solution. It is worth noting that the intersection is a major cycle artery for bike commuters. Over 25,000 cyclists a day on weekdays cross the intersection. If you calculate that there are 260 weekdays in a year, that means that 6,500,000 million bikes cross the intersection annually. With that in mind, 15 serious accidents is not a bad statistic. Reducing that to one is spectacular. The intersection in question: Via: DR P4

Actually, I was at a Christmas lunch at Danish Broadcasting Corp. and was rather occupied with the consumption of food and drink when I bumped into Ole in one of the exterior atriums at the broadcaster's headquarters . It's a massive party involving over 2500 people and Ole was invited in to sell espresso coffee to the masses. What a cool bike. Just when you think you've seen everything in Copenhagen, something like this shows up. I had a good chat with Ole, the mastermind behind the concept. All of his coffee-making gear can fit inside the cargo bike and he doesn't need electricity to run the show. It's all run on natural gas. He tells me he spent ages finding the right gear and, most importantly, the right bike. With Denmark being the home of the cargo bike there were several makes to consider. He narrowed it down to three: the Nihola , the Christiania bike and the Black Iron Horse [ Sorte Jernhest in Danish.] The choice fell on the latter, as it can handle 150

The fact that cycling is healthy is not a newsflash. However, as we highlighted in a previous post over at Copenhagen Cycle Chic , about why this city rides bikes so much, the majority of Copenhageners don't ride primarily to save the world or because they're health fanatics. According to the study: 54% ride because it is easy and fast . 19% ride because of the benefits of excercising. 7% ride because it is cheap. 6% ride because it is handy. 1% ride because of the environmental benefits. Nevertheless, the Copenhagen City Council - in their Biannual Cycle Report - had the consultancy company Trafitec rate the societal and health aspects of our bicycle culture. While these figures are specific to Copenhagen, based on our current levels of health and welfare, the results and stats are interesting nonetheless. Just the facts: - Physically active people live ca. 5 years longer than the physically inactive. - Physically inactive persons suffer on average for four more years from len