The Life-Sized City Blog

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 ...

If you're lucky, you, too, can ride around safely after dark thanks to millions of salmon sperm. Recent research has shown that a thin layer of DNA from salmon sperm has such fine optical qualities that it increases the strength and effectiveness of light diodes by holding onto the electrons longer than synthetic materials. It's a chappie named Andrew Steckl, one of the world's leading light diode experts and professor of light learning at Cincinnati University who has figured it all out. Namely that thin layers of our hereditary material was better at blocking electrons than conventional materials like silicium. "DNA contains certain optical, magnetic and structural qualities that make it unique. It makes it possible to improve the effectiveness, the strength of the light and the clarity...", Steckl said in a press release from the university. Okay, via a Danish article from which we shamlessly translated this whole piece... but anyway... The two light diodes on...

Even in the World's Best Cycle City there are "dangers" to be had. The Copenhagen City Council had a campaign last year to make Copenhageners aware of the dangers of riding without lights on their bikes, as well as other dangers. The photo is a screengrab from the Brug hovedet (Use Your Head) website. They chose to use a negative campaign portraying death and destruction. When you have 37% of the population of Copenhagen commuting on bikes each day, you'd expect that a large number forget their lights. I do, usually in the autumn, after the seemingly endless summer days with light until 23:00. By winter I usually have my lights in my bag. But I live in an extremely well-lit urban landscape, so I ain't that worried. The website [now taken offline] was in Danish, but there were 'interesting' features. Among them a map of the city showing the statistically most dangerous intersections and a game where you have to steer a bike through the city. Although you w...