The Life-Sized City Blog

So. I bought some groceries and didn't have room for the apples on the front rack. That's what the hook on my back rack is for .

I really should get out more. I rarely get to the provinces - whether Danish or otherwise. That's just me. I prefer cities. Once in a while, however, I find myself out there. In the Danish town of Frederikssund last summer I spotted these two simple traffic calming measures. Simply narrowing the street with islands and only allowing for one way traffic through the squeeze. The bicycle lane, of course, allows for free passage. In a small Danish town like this there is often a combination of painted lines, as above, and physically separated cycle tracks - depending on the traffic volume of the street. On a trip to small town in Jutland for a football tournament that my son was playing in, it was reassuring to see that along every road there were cycle tracks - and they were cleared of snow even way out there. Again, bi-directional tracks in some places and - if the traffic volume is sufficient - a track on either side of the highway. With over 10,000 km of bicycle lanes, path...

Since posting about mass-produced motoring helmets and later Protective Helmet-ish headbands for motorists I was curious to learn more about the latter, produced at the University of Adelaide. It's taken a while but I finally recieved the study done in 2000 at the Road Accident Research Unit at the U of Adelaide , called CR 193: The development of a protective headband for car occupants (Andersen, White, McLean 2000) . A chap at Road Safety Policy, Department of Infrastructure & Transport in Australia was kind enough to send a link to the Australian Government website wherein the study is presented. I don't think cyclists should be bullied with helmet promotion and threatened with legislation when there exists a very real and present danger to car occupants. I think that the car lobby as well as the general population should be presented with more data and facts about the dangers of driving. It's only fair and logical. From the Australian report we can ...

One of our readers in Australia, Peter, sent us this article written in 1989 by Alan A. Parker. It's an interesting backward glance to the days when Australia were debating mandatory helmet laws. The latter half of the article is interesting. In it, the author discusses motoring helmets and, indeed, calls for them. I found this bit to be enlightening: "There is an embarrassing silence from the police and the police unions about their willingness to enforce bicycle helmet laws but, in the closing days of 1987, they went public with the proposal that motorists should wear helmets which they regard as a worthwhile change in the law that they are prepared to enforce." Hadn't heard that one before. That the police went public backing motoring helmets. A little piece of the puzzle falls into place. Our article from back in May 2009 about Australian motoring helmets - "The World's First" - produced by Davies Craig was greeted with chuckles at first....

Might just be me and my secret wish for nicer photography, but it seems that there is an increase in imagery in the Danish press featuring bicycles. Or rather, an increase in the quality of the imagery. I've noticed one national daily, Berlingske Tidende (founded 1749) upping their artistic sensibilities of late. Like the photo, above, taken in Aalborg yesterday morning. It's a simple article about the weather but it features a cyclist rolling on the bike lane in the snow (past all the cars on the road, of course). The temperature was about -10 C, with a wicked windchill. Then there was this weather article from late last year about rain and wind. Beautiful shot. Like all of these photos, showing cyclists adds a human element to the story. In a country like Denmark we can relate to the weather when we see a fellow citizen struggling through the elements on a bicycle. The same newspaper used to have Bicycle Weather included on their weather page in their print version. Showing...

It was a long-time coming this little film. It's about the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) and how bicycle friendly the university is. I shot it when I visited Mexico City last year and spoke at UNAM's architecture faculty about promoting bicycle culture. I figured I'd whip it together after reading James' article on The Urban Country about how McGill University in Montreal has banned bicycle riding on their campus. After rolling my eyes and lamenting the lack of rationality at such an esteemed place of learning I revisted the footage from UNAM. The main campus, by the way, is stunningly beautiful and is a World Heritage Site. The campus is largely car-free and as far back as 2004 they started a bike share programme called BiciPuma. It has since grown and the university has wonderful bicycle infrastructure all over the campus. The university's bicycle friendly policy and resulting infrastructure and facilities are the yardstick by which all other u...

It's often in the details. If you're cycling down the street in the background (which is my back street) you're going to do one of two things when you get to the end. If you're turning right, it's easy. You turn onto the cycle track and continue on. If, however, you want to turn left you have to get across the street to the cycle track in the foreground. The City of Frederiksberg made it easier for by claiming half a car parking spot for the purpose of creating a passageway between the parked cars. A few painted lines and a pictogram. Here's another example just around the corner.

I've been helping out John Pucher from Rutgers University with some statistics for a new book he's writing. We were looking into bicycle parking in Denmark. I found the numbers to be interesting. The infographic above (hopefully) spells it out. Total number of parking spots at 297 Danish train stations and the number of spots reserved for bicycles and cars, including the occupancy rate of those spots. It applies to the national rail network and the S-train network serving Greater Copenhagen. I've combined the two in the stats. There are many trains that have, not surprisingly, occupancy rate of + 100%. A town like Lystrup has a bicycle rack occupany rate of 283%; 250% in Mørke, 147% in Odense, 208% in Svendborg, 121% at Copenhagen Central Station. The country's busiest train station - with S-trains, Metro and regional trains - is Nørreport with 102,189 passengers a day (53,004 arriving/49,185 departing). It has 996 bicycle parking spots (it's going to be renovated ...

I've been quietly looking into noise recently. There was an article back in November in a Danish newspaper about the negative effect traffic noise has on the population. A good, informative article stating that 800,000 Danes are exposed to harmful levels of traffic pollution in the form of noise alone. That's about 15% of the population. The article goes on about how very little is being done in Danish cities about reducing traffic noise. 400 million kroner were earmarked by the current government for noise reduction in 2009 but the government only manages the national roads. They have spent money on reducing noise on motorways but it's the municipalities that manage the city streets - along which most people live, 90% of them in fact - and here there is little being done. Shockingly so. What didn't really surprise me was that the article didn't mention anything about speed reduction. It was all about windows. Classic ' ignoring the bull ' talk onc...

So. Got me a new frame sticker . Yep.

It's rare that I have cash in my pockets as everything is debit cards here - from a pack of gum to you name it. But a had a 200 kroner note the other day and it surprised me to see that it's a new design! That's how rare I see cash. Anyway, it's of Knippels Bridge over the harbour and, right there on the money, is a bike lane. To the left of the sidewalk. It's seperated up to the bridge and on the other side but over the bridge it's a painted line. It's very wide and features about 20,000 cyclists a day. Now I'm sure the artist was focusing on the tower that controls the drawbridge and the spires of the city in the background, but I'm also sure that it's the first time bicycle infrastructure has featured on national currency. :-)

Internet nostalgia... remember those spam emails that flourished a while back (I'm sure they're still around) where the sender pretended to be the son/nephew/cousin of some African despot who had $10/$20/$30 million bucks in - as a rule - oil money but needed someone in the west to fence the money? Bikes are the new oil. Bikes are hot. First it was the adult entertainment industry and now it's the scammer-rama crowd. Check this out, recieved today at Larry vs Harry 's inbox: From: Collins Consults Date: 8. feb 2011 12.14.49 CET To: collins.abutu@yahoo.com Subject: SPORTS BIKE CONTRACT SUPPLY Dear sir, The Federal Ministry of Youth & Sports Development,Nigeria,wants a capable supplier to handle the supply of 30,000(Thirty-thousand) units of Sport bike project. Payment is 100% Telegraphic Transfer upon contract signing in advance before delivery. Therefore if you are interested and capable of handling the contract ,contact us as soon as possible...

Update: 26 November 2013: New photos of Ubatuba bicycle parking added! Scroll down. Denir, from the Books & Bicycles blog in Brazil sent us these shots from his holiday to the Brazilian town of Ubatuba . It's a surfing mecca and is even nicknamed 'Capital do Surf' so signage in the town is often surf-related. Which also applies to the 'ciclofaixa' or bicycle lanes in the incredibly bicycle-friendly city. Painted lanes, sure, by they are nice and wide - see the red/yellow markings at bottom right in the first shot. Having realised I'd stumbled upon a potential holiday paradise, I did a spot of googling. The name Ubatuba alone just sounds like a surfer paradise and could be worked into 50 different Beach Boy songs. I found this article, in Portugese , about the city wherein it says that 80% of the students of this school ride bicycles to school each day. Impressive. And staying at a little pousada like this one is about €70 a night - about the sa...

Saw this yesterday on my way to a meeting at 1508 . Four cops were pulling over cars. Two cops in a squad car and two bicycle cops. Couldn't figure out why, but hey. Nice symbolism. Like this shot from last year. Here's the story about it . And this one outside my son's school. Here's the story about it . And here are some bicycle cops in Paris doing the same thing. The police in Melbourne, however, attend to much more important matters .

Just spotted this yesterday on the approach to Knippels Bridge over the harbour. Rumble strips for bicycles. The reason is simple. The curb between the bus island and the bike lane is low here, only a couple of centimetres. Low enough for a cyclist not to notice but just high enough for it to catch a wheel, sending the cyclist tumbling onto their bottom. So... rumble strips. There is a lot of traffic on this street - 20,000 bicycles a day - so in the morning rush hour there are certainly bicycles spread out wide, close to the curb. Good vibrations. And speaking of bus islands, this is a common feature in Copenhagen. At the top right you can see a zebra crossing for pedestrians/bus passengers to use to cross the bike lane when the coast is clear.

After the last post about the culture of fear crap we have to put up with here in Copenhagen it was a pleasure to recieve a link to these posters from Tacoma, Washington and thanks to Nicholas for the heads up. This campaign is an instant collectors item simply because it's so rare. Seriously. The number of safety/awareness/behavourial campaigns out there that speak to motorists like this is extremely low. And we're talking on a global scale. So it is refreshing and hopeful to see something like this. With that said, I must admit that I favour a more direct messaging that spells it out in no uncertain terms that cars are dangerous and the cause of most of our urban problems. This Tacoma campaign is positive and its use of humour is commendable but it isn't really geared at getting people to change transport modes. By grabbing the bull by the cajones and yanking hard we will be able to affect behaviour more effectively and, in the process, speed the transformation to more l...

Reading the first part of the book Fighting Traffic - The Dawn of the Motor Age in the American City has been an uplifting experience. It's fascinating to read how 'the street' that had been a space for people since cities first were formed was defended so passionately by citizens in the first quarter of the 20th century when cars started their domination. Inspiring to learn that people didn't just shrug in resignation but rather fought tooth and nail to preserve our liveable cities. Sigh. After you rise high it is farther to fall. There is a constant flow of mad proposals from around the world. Things like Banning earbuds for pedestrians and cyclists (but as BikePortland put it, that's a bit mad when the deaf are allowed to cycle - and walk around cities) and banning children as passengers on bicycles . What amazes me is that I don't need to travel to get depressed and frustrated. It's all around us here in Copenhagen and Denmark. It's high season for...