The Life-Sized City Blog

There was a tweet today from a gentleman named Ben Hammersley on Twitter : The bicycle pump in Copenhagen airport's baggage hall is an epic sign of civilization. Cheers me up every time. So here's a photo we found of it via azubcz on Picasa . It's one of those details in Copenhagen's bicycle culture that we just haven't gotten around to featuring. So here's the perfect opportunity. Used for bicycles, of course, but many prams have chunky tires as well and I've used it when arriving home with a pram, to top up the air for the journey home on the Metro. It's all in the details.

One of the great ideas in bicycle design that has sadly, largely, disappeared. Once standard on many bicycles, this handle helped the bicycle user lift the bike up stairs, over curbs (if laden with shopping) or any number of similar situation. It appears that it was particularly popular on Swedish bicycles. Attached to the downtube, the handle is at a perfect position for a well-balanced lift. I've tried it. While something like the hook on the back rack is still around , you don't see this simple, practical accessory anymore, not even on bicycles in mainstream bicycle culture. A fact that we lament. But here it is. Let's see which bike brand is the first to reestablish the bike lift handle on newer models. The race is on.

We blogged about The Bikeman last year on this post right here . Now here's The Bikeman - The Movie! I'm nearing completion of a photobook featuring 500 photographs of Copenhagen Cargo Bike Life and all the ways the cargo bike, trailers and trikes are used in a 21st Century city. I'll keep you posted when it's available.

Saw this photo in a Danish newspaper, Politiken, this morning. The Danish air force sent F-16 jets to Sicily today and this photo shows one of the planes being prepared for duty. I love that there are two classic Danish short john bicycles parked next to them. The bicycle used when maintaining expensive fighter jets. Six F-16s fly off this morning to take part in the global push to battle a dictator who is slaughtering civilians... No... not Yemen, silly! They only have sand and dead civilians! We mean Libya, of course. They have oil and dead civilians. So off we go to war.

83 year-old woman outraced the tsunami on her bicycle. Amazing. Via @pickledtreat s on Twitter.

I'm sure many readers will remember playing card games like this one, particularly if you live in Europe. There were variations on the theme but cars were the main one. You competed with a friend or friends to see who could win each round by trumping the others' cards with more horsepower or top speed or price, etc. The City of Copenhagen (if I recall correctly) included a set of updated cars in 2009, included in a magazine and called Climate Car Cards. The theme was winning each round with the most environmentally friendly vehicle. A Christiania Bike was featured on one of the cards. It must have the win-all card. It reads as follows: Type: Cargo bike for child transport 0-100 km/h: Unlikely Horsepower: Varies Top speed: Circa 30 km/h Range: Depends on the motor Recharging time: 6-7 hours sleep Energy source: Rye bread Motor: Rye bread motor (it's an Danish expression that a bicycle has a "rye bread motor") Launched: 1984 Price: 11,200 kroner

At the core of everything we do here at Copenhagenize lies a simple celebration of the bicycle in every form. Of the bicycle as a liberating transport form for broken cities. Of the bicycle as the most effective form of indepedent mobility. Of the bicycle's historical role as liberator of the working classes and of women. Of the bicycle's role in impoverished nations in Africa and beyond. Everything we do here on the blog and, more specifically, at our company is geared towards bringing the celebratory, liberating qualities of the bicycle to societies that once knew them but that have lost touch with them. We love the bicycle, we love the bicycle squeaking cheerfully under the asses of Citizen Cyclists everywhere and we salute the bicycle's role in the development of our societies for the past 125 odd years. We embrace it. We celebrate it. This is a man carrying goods on a bicycle after the Americans bombed Nagasaki with an atomic bomb in 1945. As ever, the bicycle

Already one of the world's great bicycle nation, Japan is seeing a bicycle boom in the wake of the earthquake and tsunami. Here are some photos featuring bicycles in the ravaged tsunami zone.

Couldn't help myself. I was lingering like a bad smell at the Nørreport train station last Saturday, waiting for a friend and I took some photos of more example of bike seat rain covers, as I wrote about the other day . Nørreport is the country's busiest train station and the bicycle parking around it testifies to that. I only covered a fraction of the bicycle parking and still managed to find a number of example of rain covers. Copenhagen University, a purchased rain cover, Alinea teaching material for schools. Swedish rail advert, Information/Danish newspaper Some of the seat covers are exotic. These two are from Sweden. The orange one is an example of the campaign that started this wave of bicycle seat rain cover coverage in the first place.

This is a photo from Hong Kong by the photographer Dian Karlina . It really is the textbook example of a very non -liveable city. A city for machines, not pedestrians and cyclists. It reminded me of these photos taken by Robert Doisneau in Paris in the 1960's. Pedestrians dashing like mad to cross the street as the car traffic roars towards them. Thank goodness Paris is changing for the better. Doisneau once said, “It is not easy to catch a pedestrian, it is like a pigeon. It jumps.” When they're running for their lives it certainly isn't any easier.

Filmmaker and bicycle advocate Mike Rubbo continues his series on bike share programmes with this film about the success of the Bicing programme in Barcelona. Here is our collection of Bicing shots in Barcelona on Flickr .

Spotted this outside a supermarket. What a cool little short john for kids. Front racks are all the rage in Denmark - everybody is slapping them on their bicycles. Perfect on a kids bike.

Spotted in the Danish town of Fredericia. A bicyle pump and a DIY repair workshop with tools. For use by the public. Great bicycle symbolism on the urban landscape. Oh and while we're at it... that old myth about Denmark being flat... you're confusing us with the Netherlands. Copenhagen, certainly, is nice and even with only a few hills but farther west you'll find some decent topography. Like in Fredericia. Citizen Cyclists crawl up this hill on bicycles like they've done for 125 years. Oh, and coast happily down, too, of course. In fact, in the Danish national anthem, the hills and valleys are praised. A friend of mine, Tom, went on a cycle holiday in northern Jutland and the hills surprised the hell out of him ... Denmark's second city, Aarhus, is pretty similar to most of Portland or Seattle. And yet they have over 25% modal share for bicycles.

I've always loved this shot I took in Paris a few years back. Depending on where you're from, you'll form a conclusion as to what's happening when you look at it. An aggressive motorist/cyclist confrontation, many will assume. I was riding behind this lady on the shared bus lane/bike path when the passenger in the car said something. I was too far away to hear what. The lady hopped over the hump and stopped. I was now approaching and took the photo. I slowed as I passed, in order to hear what was being said. The lady was gesticulating and saying "I don't know! I don't have a car and I'm from the 5th!" Laughter from both parties followed. The "5th" means the 5th arrondissement (district), which is south of the river from where this shot was taken. She was just being asked for directions. It was all very friendly. That's Lulu-Sophia in the cargo bay and while we were waiting for the red light here in Copenhagen last summer the pass