The Life-Sized City Blog

When I travel around with various lectures I tend to open with a crash course in understanding Copenhagen's bicycle culture. I explain how my friends and colleagues get a kick out of the demand for me to travel around the world talking about something as dull and everyday as 'bicycle culture'. I call it Vacuum Cleaner Culture. I have even made a logo to explain this . We all have a vacuum cleaner, we've all learned how to use it and we all use it. But we don't go around thinking about our vaccum in the course of a day. Only when the bag is full do we roll our eyes and sigh. Kind of like when our tire is flat/chain is loose and we chuck our bike into the bike shop. We don't have a 'stable' of vacuum cleaners. We don't buy vacuum cleaning clothes from our LVS or wave at other 'avid' vacuum cleaning 'enthusiasts' on the street. The relationship to our bicycles is the same as to our vacuum cleaners. They're both merely incredib...

The City put in a traffic calming measure on this street next to Saint Hans Square in the Nørrebro neighbourhood. It was a perfect opportunity to plant some bike racks on the raised curb sections. This area is a hotbed of bars, cafés and restaurants so both the narrowed street and the bike racks are fantastic details. I also enjoy the symbolism of a car being forced to slow down and navigate past long rows of bicycles. It's like a sandwich.

How lovely and polite, this tag placed on a bicycle at Copenhagen International Airport. "Undesirable Bicycle Parking With respect for the free passage of passengers and the emergency services, we ask you to please place your bicycle in the established bicycle racks in the future." And on another part of the bicycle was this tag: "Is this bicycle in use? Remove this tag before 16.05.2010 so we can see that it is in use. Otherwise the bicycle will be removed by the police."

There are very few things that can't be done by bicycle in Copenhagen. We often blog about the various cargo bike variations in this city. Meet Jacob - aka The Bikeman . He's a bike mechanic with a rolling workshop. He has everything he needs in his cargo box, including a portable stand for suspending bikes. He'll go anywhere you need him to on his Bullitt in the city centre. Jacob also has arrangements with various companies. He comes out during work hours and the employees can go down and get their bikes adjusted, tuned, de-squeaked, whatever you need. No need to sacrifice your bicycle for a day by chucking it into a bikeshop. Brilliant. The professional bikeshop comes to you. If you're in Copenhagen and need to get a hold of The Bikeman , ring 28 40 35 67.

An interesting historical document. The number of bicycle sold by Husqvarna Weapons Factory from 1896-1944. Funny... a weapon manufacturer selling bicycles. But Husqvarna was founded in 1689 and focused on weapons from the start. Over the course of a few centuries they branched out to produce bicycles, but also sewing machines, kitchen equipment, motorcycles and chainsaws. Interestingly, sales peaked during both world wars.

Displacement activity. Playing around with t-shirt designs. A Danish t-shirt with a Dutch word. Viva l'Europe. Available on a t-shirt from the Cycle Chic/Copenhagenize online boutique . Oh, and a canvas shopping/tote bag . Oh, and a coffee mug . And with this I step firmly into the wasp's nest. Buzz.

Git yer roll of quarters ready, pilgrims! It's time to try and get that hiscore in [Urban] Space Invaders. Sent to Copenhagenize by Antoine, in New Zealand. The dapper, two-wheeled host with the most of Bike Friendly North Shore . Check out their Flickr photostream for some NZ shots .