The Life-Sized City Blog

Article originally published on 19 November 2007. Revised November 2015. Over the years we have realised that a large part of our work at Copenhagenize Design Co. in working towards bicycle-friendly cities is the simple art of mythbusting. While time-consuming and often frustrating, it still appears to a necessary part of the dialogue around the world. It’s interesting how uniform the misconceptions about cycling are, regardless of where in the world we hear them. It’s equally interesting to hear them coming from people who cycle - not just people who don’t. We know that every city in the world was bicycle-friendly for decades, not least until the 1950s when the urban planning paradigm shifted drastically and destructively and started to focus solely on automobiles. People have short - or selective - memories it would seem. They look around their city and assume that it has always just been like that. Civic pride seems to play a role as well. People in winter cities are pr...

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...

Mikael, on behalf of Copenhagenize Design Co., is a teacher in the Bicycle Urbanism Studio led by urban liveability expert Bianca Hermansen at the Danish Institute for Study Abroad (DIS). Since 1959, DIS has given American students the chance to study in Denmark. Our Bicycle Urbanism Studio features American architecture students. Mikael led a portion of the course involving a massive Desire Lines analysis of two intersections at either end of the Dybbøls Bridge in the Vesterbro neighbourhood, where the coming elevated cycle track - " Bicycle Snake – Cykelslangen"  - will be connected. Here's a map of the area in question . Working with the students - Anna Darling, David Mitchell, Jeannette Mundy, Elaine Stokes, Michelle Woods, Michelle Zucker, Ben Zünkeler - was brilliant and inspiring. Here is a  summary  of their studies. You can download here t he full report of the  Dybbølsbro's  Desire Lines analysis .  Meant as a companion docum...

There's some exciting news coming to the suburbs of Copenhagen. The Capital Region of Denmark - 20 municipalities all in all - have decided to expand their network of dedicated bicycle infrastructure, connecting the inner city with surrounding suburban regions and inviting more commuters to hop on a bike rather than clog the motorways in a car. This bicycle superhighway project is exciting and impressive both in terms of numbers - 28 new routes stretching 500 kilometers and an expected 10,000 new riders - and in vision; uniting the entire region with a cohesive and consistent network of bicycle tracks. Copenhagenize Design Co . was thrilled to partner with Dutch transport and mobility consultancy, Mobycon , winning the bid to help turn this vision into a reality. We were tasked with analyzing the two existing bicycle superhighway routes in the area, researching foreign examples of bicycle superhighways and creating our own innovative and user-driven ...

There are many ways to combine transport forms. One of the unsung modes is combining the bicycle with a taxi. In Denmark, every taxi is equipped with bike racks to accommodate two bicycles. All taxi companies weld them on themselves, there is no one solution as it is simple enough to make. No bells and whistles. No Kickstarter campaign. No nonsense. The racks themselves are in the trunk of the taxi and if you have a bicycle, the driver hops out and sticks them in the slots and attaches your bike(s) with a bungy cord. There is an additional fee of about 10 or 15 kroner ($2-3) if you need to get your bicycle home with a taxi. For whatever reason. A flat tire or other defect, you're in a hurry, it's raining and you forgot your waterproof mascara or if the guy/girl you met at that bar and are heading home with doesn't have a bike - and you want to get home in a hurry... All a part of a truly integrated bicycle culture. I was suprised to learn in this travel film about ...

Here's a brief reportage from a short R&R trip I made to Sweden earlier this week. The details of which you can read over at Cycle Chic - great getaway hotel if you're in Copenhagen or Sweden or are cycling touring in the Skåne area. I took the Øresunds train from Copenhagen Central to Bromölla and from there it was a 7 km ride to the design hotel on the coast. I've written previously about even small towns in Sweden have excellent cycle tracks and even keep them cleared of snow in the winter . I've also briefly covered infrastructure between small towns in Denmark as well as the infrastructure connecting cities all over the land . While Denmark features over 10,000 km of national bicycle infrastructure connecting much of the nation , it is worth highlighting that Southern Sweden does just fine as well. The trains all have roomy bicycle compartments and I always get a kick out of the seatbelts for bicycles that are provided. My Crescent bicycle from 19...

There was a tweet today from a gentleman named Ben Hammersley on Twitter : The bicycle pump in Copenhagen airport's baggage hall is an epic sign of civilization. Cheers me up every time. So here's a photo we found of it via azubcz on Picasa . It's one of those details in Copenhagen's bicycle culture that we just haven't gotten around to featuring. So here's the perfect opportunity. Used for bicycles, of course, but many prams have chunky tires as well and I've used it when arriving home with a pram, to top up the air for the journey home on the Metro. It's all in the details.

The City of Copenhagen issued a press release last Friday about how the City's stash of salt for the roads and bicycle lanes is very low due to the snowstorms of the past few weeks. Salting: Bicycle Lanes and the main roads have the highest priority Because of the hard winter conditions of the past several weeks there is a shortage of road salt all over Denmark, including Copenhagen. We must therefore prioritize which roads and paths we salt. At the moment we are prioritising the bicycle lanes/cycle tracks as well as the main approach roads to the city, so that the police and ambulances can get in. Nice to see they have their priorities right. And even with another snowstorm on it's way to Denmark - the third in a week - the bicycle lanes must be kept clear.

Pling. All of sudden this little bicycle-friendly detail showed up on the urban landscape in Copenhagen one day. I'm quite sure that very few people have noticed it, except for the people who roll up next to it. Which is the point, really. I'm talking about the railings that the man is holding onto and resting his foot on. It's located on a little traffic island on which cyclists who are heading straight on wait. The City of Copenhagen has implemented this double railing simply as a convenience for the cyclists who stop here. A high railing to grasp with your hand and a foot railing for putting your foot up, if that's what you fancy doing. Either way you can also use the railing to push off when the light changes. The foot rest reads: " Hi, cyclist! Rest your foot here... and thank you for cycling in the city. " Another example of the city using the 'Hi, cyclist!' behavourial campaign/communications template that I developed for them. It's a tiny ...