The Life-Sized City Blog

I have always been fascinated by how the bicycle has muscled its way into various languages. There are numerous bicycle references in Danish that are used by reflex, without any direct reference to a bicycle anecdote. I started wondering if this is the case in other languages and have scribbled notes down based on conversations with colleagues and friends. According to Danish historian Finn Wodschow, there are more references to the bicycle in Danish literature, music and film than in any other country. Not surprisingly, there are a few bicycle-related expressions that have embedded themselves even deeper in the linguistic culture. If you know of any others, in other languages, feel free to add them in the comments. DANISH Kæden er hoppede af "The chain fell off" is used when something goes wrong. Example: "Sorry I'm late, but the chain fell off for me today". You can also claim that the chain fell off for someone else, if they are having a bad day...

A car blocking the bike lane/cycle track. The source of much irritation and many social media photos. This photo, however, is from Denmark and that is a car that we WANT driving down the cycle track. Cities like Copenhagen and Aarhus don't just build the necessary infrastructure to encourage cycling, keep people safe and help make people FEEL safe, they regularly measure the quality of the infrastructure. Citizens always say in polls that the quality of the cycle tracks and bike lanes is of utmost importance to them when they are considering to commute by bicycle. So, specially adapated cars like these are regularly sent down the cycle tracks to measure for bumps and smoothness, among other factors, using laser technology and recording the data. There is a veritable armada of vehicles designed to operate on cycle tracks. Street sweepers, municipal garbage collection and, not least, snow clearance vehicles like those in our classic article: The Ultimate Snow Clearance Blo...

(Note: Kristen Maddox was an intern for Copenhagenize Design Co . and was quickly elevated to the status of Legendary Interns in the company. She is sorely missed here at our offices.) Danny Kaye made for an endearing H.C. Andersen in the 1952 film H.C. Andersen  that tells the story of the legendary Danish author of The Little Mermaid and other fairy tales. One priceless scene: a group of sailors creaking into Copenhagen's port after a long journey, finally coming home up the Kattegat--the little bit of water hugged by Denmark and Sweden. The nostalgia in the scene is epic. Here are some of the lyrics: On this merry night  Let us clink and drink one down To wonderful, wonderful Copenhagen   Salty old queen of the sea  Once I sailed away  But I'm home today  Singing Copenhagen, wonderful, wonderful  Copenhagen for me As a guest student here for a year to research, I always knew there would be a time when I'd have to return home to Chic...

The Danish Meterological Institute also serves the interests of our bicycle culture. They've done a spot of research regarding how likely it is for you to get wet on your daily commute. Important research for any true bicycle nation. Here's the rub, translated roughly from the DMI's article: Let's take a fictional person, let's call her Kassandra. Kassandra lives a little north of Copenhagen and rides every to work every day between 07:25 and 07:55 and back again between 15:35 and 16:05. Kassandra doesn't mind a little light showers, but if the intensity increases to over 0.4 mm over 30 minutes (light rain), then she thinks it is too wet. Kassandra works five days a week and has weekends and holidays free. That gives her 498 trips between September 2002 and the end of August 2003. How often does Kassandra get wet either to or from her job that year? The answer is, in fact, rarely. On those 498 trips it was only 17 times. That is only 3.5% or on average ...

Copenhagen Nurse doing her rounds by bicycle . Don't be surprised if you see a cyclist in hospital whites pedalling about the city of Frederiksberg, in the middle of Copenhagen [population: 91,000]. Nurses providing post-natal care to new mothers and fathers ride around the city, and in Copenhagen as well, but treating the elderly in their own home has also proved to be beneficial. Frederiksberg Hospital sends nurses out to elderly citizens in order to treat them at home. An initiative that gives the elderly patients a greater peace of mind, but also saves money on hospitalisation. The nurses ride out to patients when a care home, a doctor or the person's home helper calls for assistance. The initiative has been in place since 2005 and it is now seen to bear fruit. Frederiksberg Hospital believes that 82% of the cycling visits have thwarted a potential hospital visit, because it was possible to treat the problem in the patient's own home. While the hospital is pl...

I found this brilliant sign over at Will o' the Wisp, a website featuring four Dutch mothers who blog about life in the Netherlands with sharp, entertaining wit. (now defunct, it seems.) They didn't cut any corners when writing about Dutch bicycle culture. Like the sign above says, "Please refrain from reading newspapers while cycling". I often see people riding with books here in Copenhagen and lament daily the fact that I have, as yet, been unable to catch a photo of one. [I'm still waiting for the shot of a cat in a basket, too] Newspapers would be frightfully tricky to control on a bicycle, however. Well, unless you were selling them, of course: . Although the Italians figured out newspaper transport on bicycles decades ago . I do have a photo of Felix reading a book on our Long John - back when we had the Long John - on our way to football training: This is a common sight. Kids in cargo bikes reading books on their way home from school. The ar...

Scanning the internet there seems to be a wide range of information about which cities are the world's most bicycle friendly. Many of them are opinion pieces and others use various criteria in making up the list. Here at Copenhagenize we figured we'd just look at the hard facts. How many trips are made by bicycle in various cities? If there are many people choosing the bicycle in a city then that would indicate that cycling infrastructure is in place, that the culture is bicycle-friendly, that there is a will to transform cities into more liveable places and that cycling is, or has been, promoted positively. We looked at the stats for OECD countries since these are traditionally cultures where the car is accessible to the citizens and is a main competitor to the bicycle. In the interest of brevity, we chose to feature cities with percentages that are in double-digits. There are large cities and small on the list, from Tokyo to Davis, USA. Copenhagen - 55% [41% city wid...

[Japanese porn film featuring a bicycle] There is one surefire sign that bicycles are hot at the moment. It's not the coverage urban cycling is getting on tv networks or in mainstream newspapers and fashion magazines. It's pornography. Increasing numbers of bicycle related porn films are being spotted on adult websites. You read it here first [but you probably noticed yourself, didn't you?] Once again, the adult film industry is a deciding factor in cultural and technological issues. [Screen grab from another, more recent film featuring bicycles and a 'cyclist'.] The adult film industry almost single-handedly killed of Beta in favour of VHS when they decided to back the latter format for the distribution of their films. Every time you view internet streaming and watch clips in the most popular formats, you can thank the porn industry for choosing them and therefore standardising how we view online content. The industry was a major factor in the rapid devel...

It has come to our attention that in some cities, there is resistance from the community - namely commerce - towards such things as bike lanes and bike infrastructure in general. We see it from time to time in Copenhagen, too. Back in the 1960's, a radical idea was born. Pedestrianising the city centre. There was very vocal resistance from the shops. There were even cries of " we're not Italians! We don't want to walk around the town! " The car was king. It happened anyway. The world's longest pedestrian street was born - Strøget - and others followed. Did commerce suffer? Not at all. On the contrary. Pedestrian and bicycle access without motor vechicles created the ideal shopping concept. Sales increased. It remains the case to this day, especially with the massive investment in bike infrastructure over the past 40 years, providing even more access to the city and her neighbourhoods for cyclists. Stats and Studies for use by bike advocates The ide...