More Expensive Gas, Please!

Copenhagen beach with offshore wind turbines in the background.
The Danish Prime Minister said something the other day that you won't hear many other statesmen in OECD countries say:

Namely that petrol prices need to be raised drastically in order to clear the way for environmentally-friendly technology and to free us from our dependence on oil. He was quoted in the New York Times by Thomas L. Friedman who met with the prime minister on a recent visit to Denmark.

"I've observed that people in all other countries, including the USA, are complaining about rising gas prices. The cure isn't lowering prices, but instead we should raise them further in order to break our dependence from oil."

"We will propose a new tax reform with an even higher tax on energy and the money raised from this will be used to lower the income tax - so we will strengthen the incentive to work and the incentive to save energy and develop sustainable energy sources", said Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Danish Prime Minister, to Thomas L. Friedman. Read his opinion piece Flush With Energy here.

It remains to be seen if it will happen. The current government are not environmental angels and the proposal has been met with skepticism from the other parties in the government. But a quote is a good start.

Source [among others]: Politiken & DR

7550 New Bike Parking Spots at Copenhagen Central Station

For all of Copenhagen's badassness as a bicycle city, there remains one thing that the City still completely sucks at. Bicycle parking at train stations. At Copenhagen Central Station there are only about 1000 bike parking spots. Danish State Railways can't even tell us how many spots they have. They're not sure. Even in Basel they have 800+. In Antwerp they have this . Don't even get me started on the Dutch. 12,500 bike parking spots are on the way in some place called Utrecht . Amsterdam has a multi-story bike parking facility, floating bicycle barges round the back and are planning 7000 more spots underwater . Even at the nation's busiest train station, Nørreport, the recent and fancy redesign failed miserably in providing parking that is adequate for the demand . Architects once again failing to respond to actual urban needs. It is time to remedy that. Here is my design for 7550 bike parking spots behind Copenhagen Central Station. Steve C. Montebello i...

The Race for Lithium for Electric Cars and Bicycles

Uyuni Salt Flats, Bolivia. Photo: Ezequiel Cabrera/Wikipedia The coming boom in batteries to electric cars and Lazy Bikes (electric-assist bicycles) means a boom in batteries with which to run them. A new race for natural resources has begun. Enter Lithium, the world's lightest metal. For 150 years it's been nickel and lead that have been used in batteries but the advent of lithium technology has allowed for a revolution. Longer battery life, lighter batteries in our laptaps and mobile phones and iPods. Lithium weighs 1/20th of what nickel and lead do. Lithium is also used in anti-depressive medicine, ceramics and nuclear power. With all this talk of electric cars and bicycles, the demand for lithium is on the verge of exploding. Lithium is the new oil. Enter Boliva. This developing country sits on at least half of the world's supply of lithium, most of it in underground salt layers beneath the world's largest salt flats in Salar de Uyuni , in south-west Boliva. Betwee...

Bicycle Superhighways in Copenhagen Capital Region

The Bicycle Superhighway Network in Copenhagen Capital Region. Orange: Built. Black: Planned and financed. Dotted: Planned but awaiting financing. The Capital Region of Denmark is continuing its investment in Supercykelstier - or Bicycle Super Highways. With five new routes completed on May 2, 2017, 115 kilometers have been added to the three initial routes. The goal is to make inter-municipality bike trips easier for the citizens of the region. The super highways are being developed on largely pre-existing cycle tracks. In the Capital Region, 60% of all trips less than 5 km are made by bike. This falls to 20% for trips more than 5 km. While the region is great for intermodality, connecting bikes with trains, the plans for the Bicycle Super Highway network target increasing the latter number through constructing 28 routes that connect and pass through 23 municipalities. These will give bicycle users newer, wider cycle tracks, better street surfaces, pre-green lights, in addition...

The Life-Sized City Blog

Search This Blog