The Life-Sized City Blog

With all the hype about urban bike sharing and the Vélib/Velov/Bycyklen/Bicing/Bixi/etc/etc let's send a warm thought to the forgotten city that started it all, shall we? La Rochelle , on the French Atlantic coast had a legendary mayor back in the 1970's. Michel Crepeau. He was quite the urban planning revolutionary and the rest of France thought he was quite mad. At that time progress was built in concrete and asphalt. Inspired by Copenhagen , he created pedestrian streets in the city centre and, in 1974, he started a bike share programme. Both Amsterdam and Copenhagen flirted with bike share programmes back in the 60's, but they didn't last. La Rochelle was the first city to make it stick. Until Copenhagen, in 1995, started their City Bike (Bycyklen) system and the idea started to spread. He bought a load of yellow bikes and slapped them into racks by the harbour. The original idea was merely "take one, use it, bring it back." These days you can borrow ...

Copenhagen has motorways, just like anywhere else. Being the capital city and the main metropolis in the region, all roads and railways lead to Copenhagen. The geographical layout of the city located on the sea resembles an outstretched palm with five fingers of infrastructure all funnelling towards the spot on the wrist where the pulse is found. There are two main motorways leading to the city from afar. The E20 brings traffic from the rest of the nation and the rest of Europe to the south. It continues on over the bridge to Sweden and on to Stockholm. The E47 sweeps down from the north, where ferries arrive from Sweden. Then there is a network of motorways that slice through the urban sprawl, bringing commuters into Copenhagen from different directions. I rode out along the #16 Motorway the other day and the film, above, is the result. The #16 isn't that long. It starts about 30 km out, deep in surburbia near the town of Hillerød. From it's source it is already a funnel for ...

This is so bloody irritating. On a visit to Larry vs Harry we were discussing what the world needs. We have a Cocktail Bullitt , a Newborn Baby Bullitt , a Bathtub Bullitt , a Karaoke Bullitt , a Sustainable Bullitt , a Rowboat Bullitt and a Dog Bullitt . We decided that a Stripper Pole Bullitt would save the world. Embedded video from CNN Video Then Kelly, in NYC, sent this link. It ain't a Bullitt, but damn, it's a stripper pole on a bike . It comes near the end of the CNN piece. Nice.

Marc, from Amsterdamize , and I both got a kick out of this. He picked up this on his stats for his website. A visitor to Amsterdamize who arrived via Copenhagenize's post about the World's Most Bicycle-Friendly Cities . Let's hope they're worried as shit because their time is running out.

I found this brilliant sign over at Will o' the Wisp, a website featuring four Dutch mothers who blog about life in the Netherlands with sharp, entertaining wit. (now defunct, it seems.) They didn't cut any corners when writing about Dutch bicycle culture. Like the sign above says, "Please refrain from reading newspapers while cycling". I often see people riding with books here in Copenhagen and lament daily the fact that I have, as yet, been unable to catch a photo of one. [I'm still waiting for the shot of a cat in a basket, too] Newspapers would be frightfully tricky to control on a bicycle, however. Well, unless you were selling them, of course: . Although the Italians figured out newspaper transport on bicycles decades ago . I do have a photo of Felix reading a book on our Long John - back when we had the Long John - on our way to football training: This is a common sight. Kids in cargo bikes reading books on their way home from school. The ar...

Thanks to one of our readers, we've made the acquaintance of this Camper Bicycle. It's the work of the artist Kevin Cyr . "Camper Bike, a functioning sculptural piece, built in April 2008. A stand alone piece and the subject of a series of paintings." Brilliant stuff. And why not? After I read about it I figured I'd google 'camper bike' to see if anything else was out there apart from an artist's sculptural piece. I shouldn't have done it... here goes: The Campercycle . Arcturus Campercycle Project Bicycle Camper . The Bikamper . Or we can go old school with a classic European delivery bike. When I was visiting Amsterdam back in May, I needed a nap after riding around with Marc from Amsterdamize [hungover - had to teach him a Danish drinking lesson] so what better than Henry's big delivery bicycle outside of his Workcycles Shop . Wouldn't take much to slap a cover over the top or even just pitch a tent right on the cargo bay. These big-ars...

The City of Copenhagen is currently planning to expand the existing, extensive network of bike lanes to extend farther out into the suburbs. A network of 13 high-class routes - 'bicycle superhighways' if you will - dedicated to bicycle commuters and aimed at encouraging more to cycle to work. Currently 37% ride to work or school in Copenhagen. While in many other countries anybody who cycles to work is often considered a 'bicycle commuter', most of the 500,000 people who cycle to work or education in Copenhagen don't fit into the Danish version of this statistical category. A 'commuter' is loosely categorised as someone who travels more than 10 km to work. The City of Copenhagen and the surrounding towns are aiming to increase the trips by bike on the new routes. There is an efficient network of public transport throughout the region but just as any train passenger or motorist knows, it feels much quicker and is much quicker if you don't have to st...

A while back we posted about an Australian 'motoring helmet' designed to protect motorists' heads in car accidents. It was designed in the late 1980's. Then we recieved this tip yesterday. Another head protection device for motorists, this one developed at the University of Adelaide, in Australia. A serious product for the serious of protecting motorists from the dangers of driving. Despite airbags and seatbelts, motorists are victims of alarming head injury rates. Here's what the Centre for Automotive Safety Research [CASR] in Australia says: The Centre has been evaluating the concept of a protective headband for car occupants. In about 44 percent of cases of occupant head injury, a protective headband, such as the one illustrated, would have provided some benefit. One estimate has put the potential benefit of such a device (in terms of reduced societal Harm) as high as $380 million, compared with $123 million for padding the upper interior of the car. Thi...

In the ruthless, cutthroat world of finding bicycle parking in Copenhagen, some citizens have taken to drastic measures to secure prime parking spots. This outside the Central Library.

The children of Denmark started back at school yesterday. My main man, Felix, started in first grade. It's normal at this time of year that political parties clear their throats and preen themselves after the summer holidays and recommence the battle for headlines. This week has seen a flurry of proposals regarding traffic around schools. It has never been safer to cycle in Denmark as it is right now but the blossoming Culture of Fear in this country, spurred on by all-manner of scare campaigns, has created a sense of insecurity among parents. Surprisingly, many of the political ideas and comments this week are quite positive and unusually clever. Mainly because the focus FINALLY is shifting towards tackling the problem. Automobile traffic. 10 August 2009 The Socialist People's Party [SF] , the third largest party in the country, have a bold proposal. A so-called 'Safety Package ' featuring a series of ideas. In Denmark we have a system where various traffic violations,...

Australian cyclist goes to court to fight ticket for cycling without a helmet. Cyclists have been fighting for their rights for more than a century. It has largely been an uphill battle but in some countries, like Denmark and the Netherlands, political lobbying has paid off and the bicycle is a main feature on the urban landscape. Much of the battle has been waged from the grassroots angle. In Australia there is a woman named Sue. She has always cycled and when Australia passed mandatory, all-ages bike helmet laws in the 1990's, Sue kept on cycling while many Australians parked their bikes in the garage. Despite the helmet laws, Sue continued to cycle without a helmet and she has never felt as though she needed one. It took the better part of 15 years before Sue was finally stopped by the Austalian police earlier this year and ticketed for not wearing a helmet. After the formalities, Sue struck up a conversation with the policemen: "One of the policemen expressed interest in w...

San Sebastian Bicycle Tunnel - Photo: Michelena at Diario Vasco The Basque city of San Sebastian inaugurated the world's longest bicycle commuter tunnel yesterday [07 August 2009] in a former railway tunnel on the Bilbao-San Sebastian route. The Mayor of San Sebastian, Odon Elorza, and the Deputy Minister of Transport of the Basque Government, Ernesto Gasco opened the tunnel to the delight of the many cyclists in the city. The tunnel is aimed primarily at bicycle commuters but recreational cyclists are expected to use it on the weekends as well. Elorza expressed satisfaction at the launching of this new infrastructure that improves the network of bicycle lanes in San Sebastian and is " a symbol of progress, sustainability and personal health ". San Sebastian Bicycle Tunnel - Photo: Michelena at Diario Vasco The bicycle tunnel itself is 850 metres long and a part of a 2 kilometre section of former railway that connects two neighbourhoods in the city and is part of the ongo...

It's not like cities and towns around the world lack science or stats regarding the benefits of working towards increasing the number of citizens who ride bicycles. You can't swing a Brompton around by the saddle without hitting a pile of studies and research. Nevertheless, here's one more that we'll tirelessly broadcast across the internet in the vain hope that people will wake up and smell the liveable urban landscape. It's not THAT surprising to read that pollution in cities has nasty effects on public health. Now, however, it turns out that it can knock points off of the IQs of children. 4.5 points to be precise. Researchers have found that the hydrocarbons from traffic can lower a child's IQ by the age of three. The hydrocarbons have much the same effect as lead, stunting mental development. So reports Utne , who link to an article at Science Daily . Here's a thought... considering the fact that the hydrocarbon levels are higher INSIDE cars ... does tha...

At long last logic prevails. A new campaign has hit the streets of Denmark, thanks to the visionaries at The Danish Road Safety Council [Sikker Trafik] and Trygfonden [an insurance company]. Intense promotion of walking helmets for pedestrians has begun. This logic has been sorely missed. These two organisations have happily promoted bike helmets but pedestrians suffer just as many head injuries, if not more. This Danish campaign poster reads: "A walking helmet is a good helmet" "Traffic safety isn't just for cyclists. The pedestrians of Denmark actually have a higher risk of head injury. The Danish Road Safety Council recommends walking helmets for pedestrians and other good folk in high risk groups." The slogan is catchy in Danish since it kind of rhymes. All in all it's a brilliant project. Let's save some lives. The new walking helmets will be available in the Danish Cyclists Union's [Dansk cyklist forbund] shop. Although, as the...