The Life-Sized City Blog

Okay... it's an attention-grabbing headline, sure. But it's not even my own invention. The Danish Police are going after cyclists and scooters this week across the kingdom. They do so a couple of times a year. The police are probably very good at a lot of things but let's face it... marketing isn't one of them. It's safe to say that they get all their marketing tips from the equally hopeless Danish Road Safety Council, and then they promptly make it even worse. John Sckaletz is the head of the traffic police in Copenhagen and he has actually said this week that, " The traffic law is the only law where the death penalty still applies ". He said that. That's the police's "cleverly worded campaign" at the moment. Well done! Well thought out! How very positive! The police want to "put an end to" cyclists who roll casually through a red light or across a pedestrian crossing. They are clearly of the opinion that such infractions shou...

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about how right turns for cyclists should be allowed at red lights . So it was refreshing to click onto a link sent by a number of Danish readers this morning. The headline was enough to get us excited: Copenhagen Ready to Allow Right Turns for Cyclists at Red Lights . The national police have announced that it will be up to local authorities to decide if they wish to pass bylaws allowing right turns for cyclists at red lights as well as allowing them to continue straight on at T-intersections. The police have traditionally had a less than positive attitude towards making life easier for cyclists. Their announcement comes as a pleasant surprise. The Mayor in charge the Technical and Environmental Administration [councillor for the Dept of Transport], Bo Asmus Kjeldgaard [second from left in the above photo] says: "It's a fantastic, liberating announcment. We want to be the best bicycle city, therefore we need to get more people onto bikes. And th...

Turning right at red lights is not permitted in Denmark, like it is in many other countries, including Germany. I don't actually know why or when this law was put into place (hint: please tell me if you know). On occasion there are vague mumbles from the Danish bicycle advocacy wilderness about making it possible for bicycles to turn right at lights but little comes of it. Everytime I ride past this sign on Borups Allé I get a warm, fuzzy feeling. It reads No Right Turn (except bicycles). The warm, fuzzy feeling is often followed by a dismayed shake of the head, wondering why this isn't standard for bicycles throughout the Danish kingdom.

Vintage tire repair box. You'll be excused for thinking that May 25th is the Danish version of April 1st. The press last week featured articles about The Danish Working Environment Authority's [Arbejdstilsynet] new rules regarding working conditions in bicycle shops. Bike mechanics are now required to wear gloves and masks when repairing punctures using the vulcanized rubber glue for sticking patches on tubes. In addition, they're required to install a ventilation system in their bike shops. These rules will effectively kill off the possibility of getting a puncture repaired in Denmark. Sure, many people can fix flats themselves. However, many local bike shops [I have 22 bike shops to choose from within a 1 km radius of my flat], earn a fair chunk of their income repairing flats. I always chuck my bike into the shop to have it done. It costs 50 kroner [$10] and if I'm on my way to a meeting, I don't fancy getting my hands dirty or risk getting oil on my suit. It...

Update: Segways are now legal. But only because the people of Copenhagen need something to laugh at. And that handful of Americans a day looking so hilariously out of place on their dork machines in the world's best city for cycling - and a walkable city - are just the ticket. Seriously. We mock you. Segways look like something out of a cancelled Jetsons episode and should never have evolved from a drawing on paper to a working model. The Danish police don't seem to fancy them either. They're cracking down on Segways in Copenhagen. A company Segway Tours CPH have been running Segway tours of the city. 399 kroner, according to their website. They've been running the tours for a year or so. (You can rent a bike and get a guided tour with Bike With Mike for only 260 kroner , enjoying a wider radius of sightseeing and fitting in with the local population instead of sticking out like a sore, geektech thumb) But Segways are illegal in Denmark. They're not appr...

Tel Aviv Cyclists, by Thomas Schlijper. Last year Israel implemented an all ages helmet law for it's citizens, despite the fact that helmet laws appear to becoming less popular over the past couple of years. The Ministerial Committee for Legislation has now decided to support a bill that would modify the law to exclude adults cycling in urban areas from being forced to wear a helmet, The Jerusalem Post reports. Israeli Coalition to support helmet-less bike riding within cities The Ministerial Committee for Legislation threw its support on Sunday behind a bill which would remove the requirement for adults to wear a helmet while riding a bicycle in the city. The bill, sponsored by MK Sheli Yehimovich (Labor) repeals part of the Helmet Law which was passed last year. Instead of requiring a helmet for intra-city riding, Yehimovich's bill would leave that decision up to the adult rider. Children, those riding off-road or those biking between cities would still be required to wear a ...

The children of Denmark started back at school yesterday. My main man, Felix, started in first grade. It's normal at this time of year that political parties clear their throats and preen themselves after the summer holidays and recommence the battle for headlines. This week has seen a flurry of proposals regarding traffic around schools. It has never been safer to cycle in Denmark as it is right now but the blossoming Culture of Fear in this country, spurred on by all-manner of scare campaigns, has created a sense of insecurity among parents. Surprisingly, many of the political ideas and comments this week are quite positive and unusually clever. Mainly because the focus FINALLY is shifting towards tackling the problem. Automobile traffic. 10 August 2009 The Socialist People's Party [SF] , the third largest party in the country, have a bold proposal. A so-called 'Safety Package ' featuring a series of ideas. In Denmark we have a system where various traffic violations,...

Australian cyclist goes to court to fight ticket for cycling without a helmet. Cyclists have been fighting for their rights for more than a century. It has largely been an uphill battle but in some countries, like Denmark and the Netherlands, political lobbying has paid off and the bicycle is a main feature on the urban landscape. Much of the battle has been waged from the grassroots angle. In Australia there is a woman named Sue. She has always cycled and when Australia passed mandatory, all-ages bike helmet laws in the 1990's, Sue kept on cycling while many Australians parked their bikes in the garage. Despite the helmet laws, Sue continued to cycle without a helmet and she has never felt as though she needed one. It took the better part of 15 years before Sue was finally stopped by the Austalian police earlier this year and ticketed for not wearing a helmet. After the formalities, Sue struck up a conversation with the policemen: "One of the policemen expressed interest in w...

I think it's safe to say that we have a pressing need for marketing cycling positively if we're to encourage people to ride bicycles and begin the transformation of our cities into more liveable places. Instead of scare campaigns about cycling [a life-extending, healthy, sustainable transport form], wouldn't it be more appropriate to begin campaigns about the dangers of automobiles? Many people in car-centric countries no longer regard cars as dangerous. Maybe they realise it, but the car is such an ingrained part of the culture that the perception of danger rarely rises to the surface of peoples consciousness. Sure, there are scare campaigns for cars out there, but what if we just cut to the chase? Much like smoking. Only a couple of decades ago, cigarettes were an integral part of life, whether you smoked or not. That has changed radically. We think that we could borrow freely from the health warnings now found on cigarette packs around the world. In order to be tho...

I recieved an email from Aaron regarding new rules for bicycles in South Australia. On the Bicycle Victoria website there is this article : Rules threaten cargo bikes 21 May 2009. Road rules controlling bikes in South Australia appear to ban cargo bikes and any other bike wider than 700 millimetres. In South Australia right now size matters when it comes to bikes. A Bicycle Victoria member Dan Kortschak noticed these sentences from the official South Australia publication “ Cycling and the Law ” [opens as a .pdf]: “The overall width of any equipment or load carried on a bicycle must not exceed 700 millimetres” “The handlebars must be... no more than 700 millimetres wide.” This means that many styles of bicycle of increasing popularity such as cargo bikes and cruisers with wide handlebars could be seen as illegal for use on South Australian roads. I wondered how these rules compare with the Danish traffic regulation concerning bicycles. Perhaps Bicycle Victoria can use them in their ...

A Swedish reader of Copenhagenize.com sent in this photo of a billboard in Stockholm. It is paid for by a non-governmental organisation called Nationalförenigen för trafiksäkerhetens Främjande [NTF] or The National Society for Road Safety . There is no mandatory helmet law in Sweden for adults but these NTF seem to think there should be one. The billboard reads: "A helmet law protects in more ways than one" Notice the bird shit on the helmet. You know you don't have a solid scientific case when bird shit is your best Unique Selling Point. Anyway, our reader doesn't fancy seeing fewer Swedes cycling - which is one of the primary consequences of a helmet law. A drop of 20-40% in the number of cyclists, which has been the decrease in all the regions with mandatory helmet laws, would be a catastrophe for Sweden. Our reader took the liberty to inform people of the dangers of a helmet law. The grafitti underneath the message "A helmet law protects in more ways than one...

Photo by ' fixed gear ' on Flickr. So the bicycle licence beast raises it's ugly head again. This time in Seattle . Sure, it's only an opinion piece from a man who doesn't look like he's been on a bicycle since the days the plates above were valid, but still. Copenhagenize is quite clear on bike licences. They are one of the most ridiculous inventions in the history of transport. "Bikes should pay" is a weak argument from the Automotive Defence League. We've posted about this before in a rebuttal aimed at anyone who mumbles 'bike licences'. Here's the link. Use it freely . - Bicycle licences are a logistical nightmare that almost always end up in the red. That's why they've been dropped all over the world. They're simply not cost-effective. More cyclists on the streets and on the new infrastructure are a bonus for any city: - More cyclists means less wear and tear on the roads which means less roadworks and fewer delays for ...

Japan has a bicycle culture that the UK and US, among others, drool over. I love seeing the bikes and the overwhelming bicycle culture whenever I'm in Tokyo. So very cool and inspiring. The backbone of the bike culture are the young mothers of the nation. They practice the tradition of 'sannin-nori' - or three-on-a-bike - whenever they have to transport their kids. Most kindergartens in Japan ban mothers from dropping off their kids by car, so these sturdy 'mama-chariots' are an integral part of daily life. One kid up front, another on the back and the mum in the middle. It's a sight you see often in Copenhagen, but in Japan these mothers form a formidable army of toddler transport. When the Government's new cycling laws - a giant leap backwards by all accounts - banned the sannin-nori culture, the mothers of Japan got cross. Their initial protests were heard and it was quickly suggested that they could continue riding with two kids if they rode trikes...

Our bike culture has come a long way over the past century and a bit. Back in the day, in the late 1800's, riding bikes was not considered cool. Cyclists were spit on and heckled [kind of like riding in American cities in 2007...] because cycling was viewed as a disturbance. Indeed, cycling in some Danish cities was illegal. The town of Slagelse, for example, first legalised cycling in 1885. Since then, however, we've gone from strength to strength, creating one of the world's leading bike nations and the world's foremost bike city - Copenhagen. Above: The train station in Odense, Denmark in the 1940's. Note the bike racks on the right. The same as these ones in a Copenhagen backyard. Above: Manned bike parking in Odense, Denmark during WW2. An association that battled unemployment set up safe bike parking facilities so you could leave you bike behind for a cheap price - 25 øre - and not worry about your tyres getting stolen. Rubber was rationed. Another manned bik...