The Life-Sized City Blog

If you're lucky, you, too, can ride around safely after dark thanks to millions of salmon sperm. Recent research has shown that a thin layer of DNA from salmon sperm has such fine optical qualities that it increases the strength and effectiveness of light diodes by holding onto the electrons longer than synthetic materials. It's a chappie named Andrew Steckl, one of the world's leading light diode experts and professor of light learning at Cincinnati University who has figured it all out. Namely that thin layers of our hereditary material was better at blocking electrons than conventional materials like silicium. "DNA contains certain optical, magnetic and structural qualities that make it unique. It makes it possible to improve the effectiveness, the strength of the light and the clarity...", Steckl said in a press release from the university. Okay, via a Danish article from which we shamlessly translated this whole piece... but anyway... The two light diodes on...

The City of Copenhagen's biannual Cycle Report [the link is to a pdf and it's in Danish] is a goldmine of great statistics regarding our bicycle culture. Even though our bike infrastructure is highly-advanced, the City is constantly revising and reviewing all the issues regarding integration of bikes in the streets. It is an ongoing, long-term affair. Bikes have equal access everywhere in the city, but there are as a rule dedicated bike lanes on most roads with traffic. When Copenhagen builds new bike lanes on a stretch of road, there is a bicycle traffic increase of 20% and a 10% decrease in car traffic. Bike lanes subsequently increase cyclists' safety and perception of safety, encouraging them to ride more. The flipside of this is that there is a tendency for more accidents at intersections. The use of blue painted bike lanes across intersections is on the rise, as they help cyclists and motorists see the bike lanes. Having one blue painted strip of bike lane leading ...

It has come to our attention that in some cities, there is resistance from the community - namely commerce - towards such things as bike lanes and bike infrastructure in general. We see it from time to time in Copenhagen, too. Back in the 1960's, a radical idea was born. Pedestrianising the city centre. There was very vocal resistance from the shops. There were even cries of " we're not Italians! We don't want to walk around the town! " The car was king. It happened anyway. The world's longest pedestrian street was born - Strøget - and others followed. Did commerce suffer? Not at all. On the contrary. Pedestrian and bicycle access without motor vechicles created the ideal shopping concept. Sales increased. It remains the case to this day, especially with the massive investment in bike infrastructure over the past 40 years, providing even more access to the city and her neighbourhoods for cyclists. Stats and Studies for use by bike advocates The ide...

"Everytime I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the human race." - H. G. Wells Let's get one thing straight. While we're not banner-waving activists, we think activism is fantastic. We're all for it, especially the activism towards creating bike culture and infrastructure like we have in Copenhagen in other cities in the world. We just feel the need to play devil's advocate regarding the Critical Mass movement. Certainly the style of Critical Mass prevalent in, for example, North American cities. Rides that feature an aggressive, in-your-face tone. There are many positive examples of protest rides that are calm, cool and accepted. Budapest comes to mind. Even the rides in Prague - where they changed the name from Critical Mass to something akin to 'bike ride' in order to remove themselves from the North American versions. Generlally, it's a brilliant concept. Democratic to the core. Celebrations, even. Even if there ar...

A classic Copenhagen bike lane with Copenhageners doing what they do best. We found a spot of statistics from Eurobarometer about how many kilometres a year citizens of EU countries ride bikes on average. There is a massive difference between top and bottom. The Netherlands.............1019 km Denmark..........................958 km Belgium............................327 km Germany.........................300 km Sweden............................300 km Finland.............................282 km Ireland.............................228 km Italy..................................168 km Austria.............................154 km Greece................................91 km France................................87 km UK......................................81 km Luxembourg....................48 km Portugal............................35 km Spain.................................24 km Here's the figures for North America: USA/Canada...................30 km Netherlands and Denmark on top... h...

So many good ideas, so little time. We were thrilled to hear about a proposed cycle tunnel in the city of Bodø, Norway . The city wishes to become a cycling city on a par with many other European cities. The main hurdle is that Bodø is located in the far north of Norway, at the mercy of North Atlantic and, worse, Arctic winds. Hurdles are, however, meant to be jumped over. This is Scandinavia, design capital of the known universe, so some clever thinkers starting jumping. Bodø has a population of 40,000 wind blown inhabitants and the idea is to build an 8 km long tube from the city centre to the College of Higher Education. Clear plastic plates would be used and openings would provide ventilation. It's all still being decided, as far as we can see, but the idea is great. Read more about it here . It reminds us of an idea for a Danish bridge - Storebæltsbroen - when it was being planned. At that time it was to be the longest bridge of it's kind in the world. Some bright minds pr...

Kasghar Chicken Express 1992 , originally uploaded by [Zakkaliciousness] . I spent a few months in China in 1990 and again in 1992 and one of the moments of clarity I remember most was riding about on a black Chinese standard bike and entering a roundabout in central Beijing. I had ridden all about the country on the bike but nothing could have prepared me for that roundabout. First of all it was the size of a small African nation, with six roads using it as a hub. Secondly, I entered a fantastic school of cycling fish. Literally hundreds of cyclists. I could see no rhyme or reason for their movement. It was a fluent, poetic swirling mass of cyclism. There were no hand signals and nary an over the shoulder glance when one of the hundreds exited the roundabout. It was timed to perfection. No collisions, no talking, no sound at all. The occasional eye contact perhaps. And there was I. Caught in an operatic maelstrom. I had no idea how to get out of the mass to exit down my street....