The Life-Sized City Blog

Let's just get to it, shall we. Cyclists are not random boxes of corn flakes that you store up on a shelf, out of sight - out of mind. They are urban citizens contributing as much as the next - often more - to urban life. Like pedestrians and public transport users, they are best served at street level as integral threads woven into the rich urban fabric to contribute to the beautiful complexities of city life. Anthropologically, socially, financially. For over a century we have understood the necessity of Best Practice infrastructure . We have tried and tested it with hundreds and hundreds of millions of people - and perfected it. We have measured and gauged it in order to understand it. We have regarded it as a beautiful, functional thing and designed it accordingly. For 7000 years we have lived together in cities, on equal footing. In the splendid democracy of urban space.  The streets were the most democratic spaces in the history of homo sapiens. Super Bicycle Sna...

Copenhagenize Slopes 1,2,3. Reversing the Arrogance of Space on Hans Christian Andersen Boulevard in Copenhagen and re-demoractizing the space with 507 apartments of 50 m2, an urban park at street level, public space on 500 m of green roofs and bicycle parking for every resident and guest. For all the talk of Copenhagen being “all that” in so many urban ways, challenges and problems persist in the Danish capital. Here at Copenhagenize Design Co. we channel our impatience with lack of political will in our own city into design and ideas. Lack of bicycle parking around Copenhagen Central Station led to this solution. A dreadfully planned street in the Østerbro neighbourhood led to this redesign . Now we decided to tackle the biggest, smelliest elephant in the Copenhagen room. One that that has been demonstratively ignored by generations of politicians in this city. Denmark’s most famous writer, Hans Christian Andersen, would surely turn over in his grave if he knew that the natio...

A freshly paved cycle track in Almetyevsk along the city's main street, Lenina. What a difference a year makes. In October 2015, Mikael Colville-Andersen and his team were hired by the City of Almetyevsk, in Tatarstan, Russia. We were no stranger to the task - developing bicycle strategies is one of our primary jobs. We didn’t realise at the time what kind of visionary client had hired us. In this earlier article we called it the Transformation of Almetyevsk . One year on, that title seems like an understatement. The status quo in many Russian cities. No infrastructure. No protection for cyclists. We were - and are - quite familiar with the state of cycling infrastructure in Russian cities. On a global scale, Russia has struggled to reestablish the bicycle as transport in its cities. What most often lacks is real political will  in recognizing the bicycle as a legitimate mode of transportation. In Almetyevsk, however, that would prove to be the guiding strength. Ayr...

Copenhagenize Design Company Guest Author, Jason Henderson , is Professor of Geography & Environment at San Francisco State University, visiting Copenhagen this Fall on a research sabbatical examining how culture, politics, and economics shapes transportation in Copenhagen. Jason is author of Street Fight: The Politics of Mobility in San Francisco (2013) , and co-author of Low Car (bon) Communities: Inspiring Car-Free and Car Lite Urban Futures . He has published articles in International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Antipode, Urban Geography, the Journal of Transport Geography and several book chapters in academic books on sustainable transportation and the politics of the automobile. He is a Master Class by Copenhagenize alumni, as well. Electric Cars: Where Will the Energy Come From? by Jason Henderson Electric cars are often touted as a promising response to climate change, reducing air pollution, and bringing energy security. So it’s not surprising that th...