The Life-Sized City Blog

I experienced a strange little behavourial shift in myself recently. I use my two bicycles rather equally - the Velorbis and the Bullitt cargo bike. When not transporting kids, the Bullitt cargo bay is a respository for my bag. I just chuck it in, instead of having it slung around my shoulder. I discovered that I missed this ease-of-use when riding the upright Velorbis. I stuck the bag, Copenhagen-style, on the back rack under the rat trap. Which is what I've always done and, indeed, what most people without baskets do. Then I got a front rack put onto the Velorbis. These front racks have been a main feature for over a century, especially on Short Johns or delivery bikes/chimney sweep bikes or whatever you want to call them. Interestingly, they're experiencing a bit of a revival these day in Copenhagen. As soon as mine was on, I noticed that I was just slapping my bag onto the front rack and securing it with a bungee cord. Super quick and easy. Then I realised that the damned t...

A while ago... I'm guessing over a year and a half... I recall a reader emailing me with a request for a post about a bicycle culture tiny detail in Copenhagen. The little hook thingy found on most back racks. It's a practical solution to a question that arose about a century ago. How to transport your briefcase on your bicycle? While I'm quite sure this isn't a uniquely Danish thing, it does however seem to live on more in Denmark than elsewhere. The Dutch evolved a culture for using pannier bags while the Danes preferred the basket. Not many men used a basket and for the better part of a century, briefcases were what men carted around. In the style of the one in the above photo. Soft leather. Widespread use of these briefcases - I'm making a qualified guess here - faded away in the late 1960's. When the grassroots movement to reinstate the bicycle on the urban landscape started in the mid-70's it was borne, by and large, by the flower power culture of the ...

Photo: Bax Lindhardt for BT This is Helle Kühl. In May 2009 she was knocked off her bike by a car near Copenhagen's Central Station. The car was a rental driven by an American woman who was insured by American Express . According to the Danish newspaper BT , the police have said that the American woman wasn't used to watching for cyclists and, after the accident, couldn't understand that it was her fault. Helle Kühl was heading straight on through an intersection. A right-turning bus had stopped for her but the American woman, who was turning left across the intersection, didn't. American Express, through a collection agency, has been hassling Helle Kühl for $3106.41 - about 16,000 Danish kroner - for the damages to the car. Helle Kühl said to BT newspaper: " This is completely insane. I'm an innocent victim and now they want me to pay 16,000 kroner because I got run over. This is an Americanization of the situation ". There were many witnesses to the acci...

Week in and week out I get inundated with emails from people who want to advertise either here on Copenhagenize.com or over at Cycle Chic . It's quite amazing that most of the emails are for products that have nothing to do what I write about or take pictures about. Goes to show that one pops up in a Google search and the person in question doesn't bother to do their research. Even after writing posts like this at Cycle Chic , or this one , two days later I get an email from someone wanted to pay to advertise their "cycling trousers" for urban cycling. "Avoid chafing and wear and tear!" Oh bother, as Winnie the Pooh would say. Anyway, this email arrived today, from China. Perhaps the products are of interest to some of you, out there. Seriously. Maybe Carlton can get cheaper lycra gear for his I Pay Road Tax cycling clothes or some of you out there want to get some kit for your local club. Who knows. Being multilingual and having made major embarassing faux...

Once in a while the issue of "bikes should pay" rises to the surface like bubbles of methane in Lake Kivu. In the UK, they're tackling it quite well with the I Pay Road Tax project . Several readers have sent links to Jonathan's post over at BikePortland so I figured I'd do a post about it. Regarding bike registration in Europe, there are half a billion citizens in the European Union alone. 100 million of them ride a bicycle for transport according to the European Cyclists' Federation . None of them are inconvenienced by bicycle licences, least of all the Netherlands or Denmark - the two countries with most bike usage. I posted about this ages ago and since then I've heard that a number of cities have actually calculated what the administrative costs would be. None of them have found that licensing bicycles was cost-efficient. Lately there is talk 'over there' about a symbolic appeasement fee. Cyclists paying a fee to get the motorists et al to sh...

Bikerakk is a New Zealand product - a bicycle rack made from steel and covered in a softer outer layer made from four used car tyres. The rear wheel is a glass disk that can be used for signage. To be honest, the production process seems to be a trifle overcomplicated just for a bike rack. A rubbery outer layer made of car tyres is a gimmick that doesn't serve much purpose unless you have some fancy, expensive wonderbike, which most people don't. Sheesh, if I was worried about scratches on my bicycles in this city, I would bubblewrap them and leave them in the cellar. BUT... with all that said, it's symbolism, which we like here at Copenhagenize. It's the bicycle as a symbol in cities and towns. The more symbolism the better if we're to reestablish the bicycle as a feasible, respected and accepted transport form. The Bikerakk is bold and oversized which is all the better. It's a sculptural addition to the cityscape. The "I used to be a car tyre" sloga...

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...

Photo: Joan Karlsen/ jv.dk Pretty much everywhere you go in the countryside there are dedicated bicycle lanes running parallel to the roads, enabling cyclists to ride from town to town with the same accessibility as motorists. There are, however, black spots on the map that lack high-quality separated infrastructure. The national government's financial boost for bicycles from last year [launched on my birthday, actually] has now transformed into projects that are actually being built. 1 billion kroner [$200 million] was offered up for bicycle projects and it resulted in a storm of applications from towns, cities and orgs wanting funds for a variety of things. Above is a bicycle lane being built between two towns in Jutland. The article from the provincial newspaper jv.dk is about how it ended up being 800,000 kroner [$160,000] cheaper because the costs for archeological digs was less than planned and lower labour costs than expected. It's part of a 5 or 6 km stretch connectin...

We're used to selling stuff from cargo bikes in Copenhagen but this is such a lovely shot from Mexico City. A man selling wares from the back of a bicycle.

The trademark "Copenhagen Blue" ®/™ bicycle lanes that cross intersections - as above - have arrived in London, it appears. As part of a test phase for the new 'bicycle highways'. Not a particularly elegant paint job, but lovely all the same.

Great shot of a man marking off the position of another bicycle lane/cycle track in Copenhagen, ca. 1915. Nice and wide. Just like we like 'em, even today.

Historical photo of a rolling advert for the Svajerløb - the bike messenger races - back in the 1940's. A sign attached onto that iconic cargo bike - The Long John. Here's a Long John in action the other day.

Hey! Bikes are everywhere, now cars are here... let's combine the two! Thus thought a certain Herre Holger Møller in a moment of misguided inspiration. His "Autocykel" never caught on. The design of the upright bicycle just couldn't be improved upon.