The Life-Sized City Blog

Photo by Diego Franssens - from interview in Belgian magazine Knack. Saturday morning, 11:30. Came out of the flat with the kids, heading for a toy store to buy a present that Felix would then take to a birthday party. Lulu-Sophia and I would then run some errands and hang out in the backyard. All of this would happen with my red Bullitt cargo bike. Which, I discovered, wasn't where I parked it. First thought... "Hmm, I thought I parked it there..." Second thought... "Maybe I parked it in the other spot..." Third thought, gradual realisation... "It's been nicked..." Not a foreign line of thought. Hell, I've had loads of bikes stolen before. But the fourth thought really says all about the role of the bicycle in Copenhagen - and in my life: "Shit... how I am going to get around today?!" Standing there with two kids - Felix was on his own bike - with things to do, places to go and stuff to buy and the cargo bike rug was pulled out from...

Spotted this outside a supermarket. What a cool little short john for kids. Front racks are all the rage in Denmark - everybody is slapping them on their bicycles. Perfect on a kids bike.

What a brilliant - and simple - idea. Playing out. Children playing in the streets. As children did, including yours truly, before the Culture of Fear (and its army of profiteers) clenched its fist around our societies. Playingout.net is the website. This is the film about it. Transforming the streetspace into playspace. "When we limit our children to organised activities and formal playspaces we reduce their opportunities for play. Particuarly the kind of free play that develops really important life skills, their physical well-being and their sense of belonging." Brilliant. WARNING! DISCLAIMER! The faint of heart and safety nannies alike should refrain from watching this. It features not only rational dialogue and sensible parents but also children playing happily in all manner of 'extremely dangerous' situations. I spotted dozens of children inhaling chalk dust, a great deal of 'irresponsibly unprotected' skateboarding, scootering and bicycle ri...

The vast majority of parents to children at our daycare drop off/pick up their kids on bicycles. Last Friday the children dressed up in costumes to celebrate Fastelavn, the millenia-old Nordic pagan version of the carnival celebrating the approaching spring. The parents were invited to hang out and have a cup of coffee and a fastelavn pastry, which is why there is congestion in the bicycle parking out front. Normally, the drop off / pick up times are scattered all over the morning / afternoon depending on each family's routine so it was cool to see the armada of bicycles all at once. This is just one angle. I was in a hurry. The bicycles continue around the corner and into the beyond. It's different at schools where the bell rings daily at 08:00 so there is an intense flow of bicycles approaching my son's school in the 10-15 minutes up to the bell. Get there early to get a good bike parking spot.

A bike thief got a shock yesterday when he stole a Christiania cargo bike from outside a shop here in Copenhagen. A man parked the bike and went into a shop. When he came out the bike was gone. A man had hopped onto it and rode off. The cargo bay had a cover on it, like in the photo above, and when the bike thief looked inside he saw three sleeping children, ages one, four and seven. Not quite what he bargained for when nicking the bike. The police were notified and all available personnel were set to the task of finding the children in the bike. When my wife and I saw this breaking news on the telly my first thought was that the thief would discover the children and then deliver them to safety. Sure enough, after he found them he hid the bike in a cellar entrance and asked the seven year old where they lived. He then followed all three of them home, notified some neighbours and delivered the kids. The police were called and he was arrested. " The bike thief followed the children...

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...

The fact that cycling is healthy is not a newsflash. However, as we highlighted in a previous post over at Copenhagen Cycle Chic , about why this city rides bikes so much, the majority of Copenhageners don't ride primarily to save the world or because they're health fanatics. According to the study: 54% ride because it is easy and fast . 19% ride because of the benefits of excercising. 7% ride because it is cheap. 6% ride because it is handy. 1% ride because of the environmental benefits. Nevertheless, the Copenhagen City Council - in their Biannual Cycle Report - had the consultancy company Trafitec rate the societal and health aspects of our bicycle culture. While these figures are specific to Copenhagen, based on our current levels of health and welfare, the results and stats are interesting nonetheless. Just the facts: - Physically active people live ca. 5 years longer than the physically inactive. - Physically inactive persons suffer on average for four more years from len...