Motorists Dismount

Buttons that pedestrians or cyclists are forced to push in order for a computer program - programmed by a car-centric engineer - to grant them authorisation to cross a street in their city have to be among the most archaeic remnants of a century of city planning that caters only to the automobile.

And that was a long sentence. Sorry.

I wish for their immediate demise. The only thing goofier is the pedestrian flags in some American cities. Talk about ignoring the bull. Not to mention engineering instead of designing our cities.

One of the things I like most about cycling in Copenhagen is that I don't have to push any of these buttons. There have been a few but they tend to get removed and thank goodness for that.

Here's one from the archives:

(Although now I'll have to check if it's still there...) Still, they are a rarity here and I've only seen them at t-intersections.

So why not signage like the graphic up top? If we're going to level the playing field - which we should - after this centuria horribilis. Let this sign be posted in densely-populated urban centres, near schools and kindergartens and basically anywhere we're keen to reestablish liveable cities.

More wacky buttons from around the world:

Ljubljana, Slovenia & Washington DC & Sao Paulo

Berlin & Halifax, Canada

Lean on your city. #cyclechic #amsterdam #bike

Ottawa & Amsterdam

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...

Traffic Safety Orgs Speak for Themselves - Not the Rest of Us

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Bikes Beat Metro in Copenhagen

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