The Life-Sized City Blog

We felt it was time for another look at the Arrogance of Space , this time applying our filter to an intersection in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Our friend and colleague Dora Moreira took this photo for us last week - Dec 2015 - of the intersection of Praça Julio Mesquita - Avenues São João & Rua Vitória. It was 16:40 on a Saturday. Looks nice and quiet with not a lot of traffic of any sort. We are, however, looking at the space allocated to various transport forms. When you apply the colours to the photo, you start to see The Arrogance of Space emerge. This photo is a little deceptive because it is not completely aerial. The yellow of the buildings dominates, so let's focus on the streetspace. Despite being in the heart of Sao Paulo, pedestrians are not afforded very much space. The angry red of the roads emerges as the clear winner in the space sweepstakes. A token strip of purple denotes some sort of bike lane - far from anything we recognise as Best Practice. Not to menti...

As you will have seen by now, here at Copenhagenize Design Co. we are currently in the midst of a crowdfunding campaign, raising money to organise a cargo-bike race in Rio de Janeiro, in order to raise the profile of the under-privileged cargo-bike riders of the city. But why do we want to raise their profile? And why do they need their profile raised? As you may remember, a couple of years ago our partners in Rio de Janeiro, the NGO Transporte Altivo did an extensive cargo bike count of the city. This showed that each and every day in Rio, there are over 11,000 cargo bike deliveries. It also showed how hard they work: loads in excess of 200kg are not uncommon. Why is this important? Well, Brazil’s economy is growing at breakneck speed, and by 2016 it is set to be the world’s 5 th largest economy. Cargo bikes are vital to the cities that power this growth, connecting the country's otherwise car-clogged urban environments and ensuring Brazil’s powerhou...

Before the Girl from Ipanema, there was the Bicycle from Copacabana. 1940s. While we are slowly chipping away at the bizarre but nonetheless prevalant misconceptions that bicycles are a new-fangled intruder in cities and all the ridiculous comments like "people won't cycle here... it's too hot/cold/hilly/", they remain a hurdle. Despite over a century of evidence to the contrary. Cycling was a normal transport form in Rio de Janeiro. Someone should tell the president of the Brazilian national oil company Petrobras. She was quoted recently that she "loves traffic jams. They're good for business." Lord knows what she'll do if she sees these photos from the 1940s. Bicycle parking on Copacabana Beach, 1940s. We love the classic Danish Bulldog child's seat . Rio de Janeiro. 1940s. For more photos that , here are some from Los Angeles , Canberra , Queensland , New South Wales , Vancouver , Singapore , Dublin .

I've returned home from after a brilliant journey to Brazil. It was a full programme and every moment was rewarding. Last year, in July 2011, I was invited by the City of Sao Paulo to speak about Copenhagenize Design Company's Four Goals for Promoting Urban Cycling. On that visit I had the opportunity to meet with the Secretary of Education for the city - Alexandre Schneider and his advisor Daniel Guth, who is the coordinator for the project. The Education Secretariat is responsible for the education of 1.2 million children in Sao Paulo. A mindboggling number. I pitched them the idea of placing bicycles in their schools as a way for the Education Secretariat to be the 'missing link' for childrens relationship to the bicycle. Most of them still learn to ride but their options for continuing to do so are limited because of lack of safe infrastructure and the explosive and continuing growth of car culture. I explained that bicycles have been on the curriculum in Dan...