The Life-Sized City Blog

What a lovely shot. Copenhagen. 1907. Vestre Boulevard. Dug up by our very own Lars Barfred . The sign on the right reads "Bicycle Lane". Sweet. At first glance it's a nice vintage photograph - coloured for effect - of a street in Copenhagen. And then, as a Copenhagener, you realise... hey... I KNOW that street. That's City Hall on the left and Tivoli Gardens on the right. Vestre Boulevard is now named Hans Christian Andersen Boulevard. My goodness! Look at how lovely that street is! So liveable. Like a wide street in the heart of a city should be. Look at all that space! Then you get depressed because you remember what it's like now. (Thanks to Jason for the link to What Was There and this image) The 1907 photo was taken from right about where that black car is, in the middle of the intersection. H.C. Andersen's Boulevard is the most congested street in Denmark apart from the motorways. 55,000 cars a day. It carves a grey scar through the heart o...

There is a constant flow of discussion at the moment about the proposed congestion charges in Copenhagen - one of the initiatives the current government had on their election platform. Like in Stockholm and in London prior to implementation of their congestion charges, the debate is heated and often rather one-sided. Copenhagenize is pleased to feature this guest article written by Natalie Mossin and Jane Sandberg. Jane is the CEO of The Danish Architects' Association and Natalie is the Chairman of the Board. The Danish Architects' Association was founded in 1879 and works to promote the quality of planning and design of our physical environment and to improve and develop the conditions for the architect's profession. We thought it appropriate to publish some rational thoughts about the congestion charges. Here it comes. The City of the Future Requires Space for Life Congestion charges are about what cities will be like in the future and which needs they wi...

Los Angeles. 1900. Spring St. near 8th. The latest installment is from a city that enjoyed a modal share for bicycles of 20% at the turn of the last century and built impressive protected bicycle infrastructure like this 10 km, elevated cycle track back in 1900 . Alas, the bicycle disappeared from this area that was described like this in an 1897 newspaper article: " There is no part of the world where cycling is in greater favor than in Southern California, and nowhere on the American continent are conditions so favorable the year round for wheeling. " Thanks to our reader, Rick, we found these photographs showing the bicycle as an accepted and respected part of life in Los Angeles in the Los Angeles Public Library archives . We all know what happened when the car industry went after another competitive transport form . Burbank. 1908. First Street looking east from Yale Avenue in Claremont in 1915. Los Angeles. Ca. 1890. 632 South Broadway. Balboa. Newport...

One of the main focuses of this blog has always been on how Copenhagen and other cities have succeeded in increasing cycling levels by approaching the subject using mainstream marketing techniques. Tried and tested marketing that has existed since homo sapiens first started selling or trading stuff to each other. Modern bicycle advocacy, by and large, is flawed. It is firmly inspired by environmentalism which, in turn, is the greatest marketing flop in the history of humankind. Four decades of sub-cultural finger-wagging, guilt trips and preaching have given few results among the general population. When sub-cultural groups start trying to indoctrinate and convert the public, it rarely ever succeeds. For the better part of a century, people all over the planet rode bicycles because they were quick, easy, convenient and enjoyable. In hilly cities. In hot cities. In snowy cities. After the bicycle largely disappeared from the urban landscape because urban planning s...