The Life-Sized City Blog

Yesterday I took back ownership of my own Bullitt cargo bike, when The Lulu and I picked it up at Larry vs Harry . You might have heard it was stolen back in March . After a week or so, I resigned myself to never seeing it again. I lived in hope, because another time it was stolen , the Danish internet helped me get it back . On Sunday evening, I got this photo sent via MMS and on Facebook. WTF. My bike parked outside Larry vs Harry. It was found at Christiania by a guy named Danni and taken from there and put outside Larry vs Harry. An amazing story. I called Danni and he was all like "no problem...". I got the details of the story yesterday when we picked it up from Claus. And it is amazing. I realised I know Danni. I chat with him every year at the Svajerløb - Danish Cargo Bike Championships and I chatted with him at the recent bike flea market . Ironically, about whether or not I had found my Bullitt. Danni's own Bullitt is well-known here. He extended the...

Here we go again. Out into the backyard this morning with The Lulu, heading for school and then off to work. Something was missing. It was big and red and quite gone. My Bullitt cargo bike was not where it should be. Locked with the mother of all chains in our bike shed. It was stolen. The first thought was "Damn... my logistics this week are screwed." Second thought... "I liked that bike". You know you live in a mainstream bicycle culture when the thoughts occur in THAT order. I walked around the backyard in vain hope. Then I noticed that another Bullitt wasn't parked in its normal spot. It was gone, too. Double Bullitt thieving in the dark of the night. In a secure, locked backyard. Fun having to explain to The Lulu, aged 7, about why people do such things. She's no stranger to bike theft, but still, she was as upset as me, so we had to tackle the subject on the spot. It's just a bike, I know. But it's a bike that we use alot. For tran...

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 ...

Standard cycle track in Copenhagen. Sign indicating that you turn left here for the airport. I will fully admit the irony of my epiphany. It's even a bit silly. The story has, however, a decent ending. The nature of my work involves a great many trips to and from Copenhagen Airport . We're lucky in Copenhagen. The airport is the most efficient and well-designed airport I've seen anywhere in the world. It is easily accessible and is located close to the city. You can get there by bus, metro and train, as well as car or taxi, of course. This being Copenhagen, I knew there was fully separated bicycle infrastructure the whole way out there, as well. From every direction. Last October, on the eve of a journey to Zurich for my TED x talk , my friend Ole - previously written about on this blog - asked why I didn't just ride my bicycle to the airport. I shrugged and said that I live 6 minutes walk from a Metro station and it takes 25 minutes on the Metro to get there. I...

So, Lulu - aged 4 ( the world's youngest urbanist ) - says to me, "Daddy, what should I draw?" I said, "How about a cargo bike?" Off she went. Here's her interpretation. How she regards our cargo bike and its role in our daily lives. Love it. Says it all. Here was her first interpretation of a bicycle. Danish design minimalism. Deconstructing a bicycle to its basic ingredients. Well... except for pedals. Here was her first interpretation of herself with her bicycle. And this was her first interpretation of a cargo bike - using our Bullitt as inspiration.

It's been a while since we've written about cycling to IKEA in Copenhagen . I headed out there with the kids yesterday to pick up a few things. Lulu on the Bullitt and Felix on his bike. Lulu clearly drew the long straw, especially considering the rolling terrain you meet once you leave the city. She sang the whole way. Above and below are some photos from the journey. One of the most popular articles on this blog was a few years ago. IKEA did a transport study of their customers and found out, to their surprise, that about 25% of their customers rode bicycles or took public transport. They promptly started a bike borrowing scheme to accommodate their customers who wanted to get their stuff home by bike and trailer. They were surprised, but shouldn't have been. Only 29.1% of Copenhageners own a car so other transport options are a given. You may also recall an earlier trip to IKEA that I documented a few years ago . This is a different route than the one we took...

Photo by Diego Franssens - from interview in Belgian magazine Knack. Here we go again. Some of you may remember the fairytale ending the last time my Bullitt cargo bike got stolen, back in May 2011. What started with this blogpost ended happily with this one . Last night, it happened all over again. I have just moved flats - last Saturday - and this real estate agency have not yet given me keys to the backyard, where there is a bike shed. It's a secure backyard, requiring a key to get in or out. (nor have they given me a key to the postbox, so if you've sent me a postcard, I haven't read it yet...) In lieu of being able to park the Bullitt in the backyard, I parked it on the sidewalk outside the flat. It is a busy street, right next to a busy intersection and a bus stop. I bought an extra lock - super thick Amsterdam style - and both locks secured the bike to a metal railing. Not optimal, but hey. This morning, the locks lay curled on the sidewalk like sleepin...

So we got ourselves a new government in Denmark. When the government is formed, the tradition is that they pop down the palace to let the Queen know. She provides tea and biscuits. All very ceremonious. Here we see the leader of one of the coalition parties, Margrethe Vestager of the Radical Left (not very radical, not very left, but hey) arriving in style at Amalienborg Castle, followed by the other ministers from her party. Not a BMW/Audi/Mercedes in sight. Only elegant Velorbis bicycles for gentlemen and ladies alike. The bicycles are part of a large Velorbis bicycle fleet available for politicians to use for getting to and from meetings at various locations in central Copenhagen and are adorned with the logo of the Danish parliament. And here is Manu Sareen. This is not the first time politicians have arrived by bicycle for this, but it's the first time one of them was riding a cargo bike. In this case a splendid yellow Bullitt . Here's an earlier post about him camp...