The Life-Sized City Blog

One of the most talked about intiatives in Copenhagen is now underway. Nørrebrogade is a main street running through a densely populated neighbourhood and it has had problems thriving for many years. Many of the side streets are lovely, cosy shopping streets but the main drag is dreary. It is the busiest bike stretch in the nation, with 30,000 cyclists each day. 10,000 cars a day make their way down the street towards the city centre, despite the fact that only about 35% of the locals own cars. Vice-Mayor Klaus Bondam secured a majority at City Hall for a radical project. Closing off the street to cars. It was meant to be a permanent project but he had to compromise and make it a 'test' for a period of three months. Here's a previous post about, after it was announced . This is also the stretch that features the Green Wave - cycle 20 km/h and hit green lights all the way. Anyway, the work has begun. I got a text message the other day from a friend who uses the route. He sa...

It is with absolute enthusiasm that I can highly recommend the book - Traffic - Why We Drive the Way We Do (and what it says about us) by Tom Vanderbilt. Carlton Reid over at Quickrelease.tv recommended it and I promptly ordered it from Amazon. I'm glad I did. It may not have been the author's intention, but I'm left with the sense that this is the greatest bicycle advocacy book ever written . It's all about cars and how motor vechicles affect those who drive them - or those who walk/ride next to them. Filled with references to countless studies and research, Traffic will make you think differently the next time you hop into a car. It also helps cyclists and pedestrian understand the intricate happenings in the heads of motorists. I've had a driving licence for about 25 years and enjoy driving. I don't do much of it now that I live in Copenhagen but on every single page of the book I found myself muttering an inner 'wow' or 'hmm'. So many peopl...

I don't wish to suggest that the cyclist above is a recent immigrant. She is probably born and raised here and can speak better Danish than me. The photo is for illustration only. Immigrants from an OECD country who move to Denmark face cultural and linguistic challenges, just as they would moving anywhere else. An Australian or a Spaniard moving here will have to adjust to the mentality of the Danes and try to learn the unintelligible language. For immigrants from other regions the challenges are often greater due to vastly diffent cultural norms. While an Australian or a Spaniard, as a rule, have probably learned to ride a bicycle in their childhood, many new arrivals from Arab countries or Africa have not. We've had many bicycle courses for immigrants over the years and learning to ride a bicycle is a great way to integrate in Danish society. You'll get up close and personal with your new fellow citizens on the bike lanes but you'll also be given the freedom of movem...

I actually saw this yesterday here in Copenhagen. In Denmark we have the Danish Pedestrians' Union [ Dansk Fodgænger Forbund ] who do everything they can to fight for the pedestrians rightful place in the traffic. I figured that with the current fanaticism coming out of the Danish Cyclists' Union , the Danish Traffic Safety Board and the Danish media at large, they would be interested in saving pedestrians' lives, too. It is the logical continuation of their ideology and lack of respect for science. So I asked the head of the Pedestrians' Union a couple of questions in an email interview: Question : I can see that the statistics show that pedestrians are at risk from head injury. I can also see that the Danish Traffic Safety Board and Danish Cyclists' Union are currently attempting to promote bike helmets. Does the Danish Pedestrians' Union have plans for promoting helmets for pedestrians so we can reduce the number of injuries in traffic? Pedestrians...