The Life-Sized City Blog

The neverending story of car dependency: (c) Todd Litman, 2013. " Smart Congestion Relief - Comprehensive Analysis of Traffic Congestion Costs and Congestion Reduction Benefits ". Victoria Transport Policy Institute. FUD - Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt. This is the general feeling when drivers know that the street they usually drive on, may soon be closed to vehicular traffic. This feeling has, to some degree, been used by those who decide to build new roads. In other words, we still live according to Henry Ford's motto, “With mobility comes freedom and progress”. As someone who works with urban planning this can be viewed as when the ends actually justify the means – cities scratched by black tar marks, roads planned and built with eyes closed. Now, the results of unconsidered planning are here - we feel these impacts on a daily basis. Currently, that paradigm is slowly shifting to a new one. In a rather considerable number of cities, city centres, as well as ma...

Ole's new Batavus bicycle. The whole day at the recent TEDx Copenhagen event was brilliant. I was especially thrilled that so many good people came up to me after my own talk and relayed positive feedback. It was quite humbling and inspiring. I'll have a hard time forgetting one man in particular. His name is Ole. There is an old children's song in Danish called Oles Ny Autobil / Ole's New Autocar. Ole's new autocar drives 8 miles in an hour (the old Scandinavian mile is 10 km) Ole said he enjoyed the talk but then he revealed that Copenhagenize and Cycle Chic are the direct reason that he and his family sold their Volvo station wagon. These blogs have generated an incredible amount of positive feedback over the years and it is especially when I'm giving talks abroad that I get fantastic face-to-face experiences with readers. For some reason, Ole's revelation was more moving and touching. Perhaps because I was on my home turf in Copenhage...