Skip to main content

Car Friendly Campaign in Copenhagen

Car Friendly Traffic Campaign
It boggles the mind. It really does. These signs appeared on our bike lanes over the past couple of days, when you're approaching a side street. It reads, "Keep your eye on the side streets."

It's the latest car-friendly campaign from auto industry's favourite national traffic safety council - Rådet for Sikkertrafik. They've been protecting the car industry for decades and they're at it again.

Upon seeing the spray-painted sign I rolled up to the side street and looked for a corresponding warning sign for the motorists approaching from this direction.

Nothing. No brightly-coloured signs or posters or painted warning on the street reading, "Watch out for cyclists and pedestrians!"


No in your face billboard warning them of the fact that it's cars, driven by motorists, that kill.

Classic Ignoring the Bull from people who should know better. Here's a previous post about behavourial campaign challenges.

If the warnings on the bike lanes HAD corresponding messages to the motorists on the side streets, it may actually make sense. But they don't. The paradigm shift in this nation is becoming more and more defined. Less bicycle-friendly. More car-centric.

At the very least, here are some bad examples that we all can learn from. Now if only we had a cyclist organisation that could counter the constant attacks on our liveable cities and our bicycle culture. If only.

Popular posts from this blog

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...