The Life-Sized City Blog

This article is written by Copenhagenize Design Company's former urban planner, Leon Legeland. Originally from the least bicycle friendly city in Germany, Wiesbaden, he has lived, studied and worked in Vienna, Malmö, Copenhagen and currently Berlin. He has a master in Sustainable Urban Management and is recently finished his second masters in Sustainable Cities here in Copenhagen. He now works in Berlin. Last year we covered the state of cycling in Berlin . It’s time for an update. Berlin has a quite ambitious bicycle strategy and the city administration, on some level, understands that urban cycling improves the quality of life and that it needs to be promoted and supported . As cosmopolitan cities the world over, cycling rates in the last decade have been on the rise. The substandard infrastructure built to date has been partly responsible, but in order to get the 99% on bikes, Berlin will have to turn to best practice infrastructure. Progress is painfully slow and there i...

If this was 2007, I'd expect some confusion and misinterpretation regarding Best Practice for bicycle infrastructure. It was a brave, new world back then. This blog was a lone voice in the wilderness regarding bicycles as transport in cities, with only testosterone-driven, frothing at the mouth sports and recreational cycling blogs for company in the woods. Now, there is a chorus and the voices are getting louder and more harmonious day by day. Many, many people know better now. Knowledge has spread and the message is more unified. One thing that baffles me, however, is why on-street, bi-directional cycle tracks are actually being promoted and implemented. For clarity, when I saw "on-street, bi-directional" I mean the creation of one lane for bicycles separated by a line, allowing for two-way traffic - on city streets. I am not referring to a two-way path through a park or other areas free of motorised vehicles. In Denmark, the on-street, bi-directional facilit...

In the interest of expediting the journey towards bicycle-friendly cities and eliminating misconceptions, Copenhagenize Design Co. has produced The Copenhagenize Bicycle Planning Guide. Based on Danish Best Practice developed over the past century, since the first separated bike lane was implemented in Copenhagen in 1915. The beauty of the bicycle infrastructure network in Copenhagen is the uniform design of the infrastructure. There are, by and large, four types of infrastructure - all represented in this graphic. Based on the speed limit for cars, you select the appropriate style of infrastructure and off you go. One of these designs fits every street in the country and, indeed, every street in every city in the world. If you fancy sending your local planner/engineer a gift that keeps on giving, this graphic is also available as a poster .

Late last year I transported myself a bit farther than normal on my bicycle. The occasion was a weekend in the woods with the families in Felix's class. The destination was about 21 km north of Copenhagen. Somewhere near Værløse. Which is "Middle of nowhere" (MoN) to this city boy. Normally, I don't bother going farther than IKEA. But I'll ride my bicycle there every time . I'm not a cyclist. I don't demonstratively ride my bicycle everywhere. Like almost every Copenhagener I don't know how many kilometres I ride each year. I'm just a guy who uses a bicycle because it's practical. With Felix and Lulu in tow, we had three options for getting there. 1. Take the train and then a bus. 2. Take the bikes on the train and ride the last 5 km. 3. Take the bikes. It was number two if the weather was crap. I asked Felix if he thought he could ride 21 km and he was up for trying. Turns out the weather was fine so off we went. If you want to see ...

The focus on the cycling life of Denmark in general and Copenhagen in particular came out of nowhere when Copenhagen Cycle Chic and this blog launched a couple of years ago. The international focus on reestablishing the bicycle as a feasible, acceptable and respected transport form has increased steadily and shows no sign of diminishing. The result is that cities, towns, cycling groups and even nations are become hungry to learn about the experience of cycling friendly cities, towns and nations and how they achieved their goals. They are knocking on the doors of Denmark and Holland and arriving on study trips. I've had the pleasure of meeting a few hundred people over the past year or so who have come to Copenhagen to see what we do. We've gone for bike rides around the city or sat in cafés and discussed. Based on this intense interest, it's natural that the Cycling Embassy of Denmark has gotten onboard. The embassy is comprised of various stakeholders in the cycling comm...

Without a doubt there were pleasant surprises awaiting me in New York City. I spent a day riding around the city, trying to see as much as I could on my limited schedule. It was a pleasure cycling around the city. I felt safe the entire time and, compared to other cities I've cycled in like Moscow, New York is not the hell on earth people try to make it out to be. Then again, I don't ride like a moron, trying to break landspeed records. I just ride like most people do in most cities. There are pockets of good bicycle planning, like the painted infrastructure pictured above and below, complete with a bike box. Approaching Times Square from the north, down Broadway, there is a fine bike lane/cycle track separated from the traffic, as well as a slice of street painted with funky circles, quite like sections in Copenhagen . Graphic design meets urban landscape: So, the experience in New York was, by and large, positive. There are still various issues that need to be addressed. Of c...