The Life-Sized City Blog

If you lined up every bicycle ever built since the 1880s, the vast majority would look much like the one above. Easily 75%. It would probably be black, with three speeds, a chainguard and coaster brakes. Since the 1970s, bicycles designed for racing or touring or climbing hills have increased in popularity but when it comes to transport in cities and towns, nothing beats the upright bicycle. There are many reasons for why it became - by far - the most popular bicycle design in history. The simplest one is that it appeals to regular citizens and has been well-suited to urban life for over a century. As the Danish author, Johannes Wulff, wrote in "Paa cykle" in 1930; "One sits on it either straight-backed, as though you're at a festive dinner party, or hunched foward, as though you just failed an exam. All according to the situation, your inclination or your inborn characteristics." For the purpose of this article, we're going to a festive dinner part...

(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...

I'm reading an amazing book at the moment, after a correspondence with a reader.. It's called The Bicycle and the Bush - Man and Machine in Rural Australia . The author is Jim Fitzpatrick Books about the historical role of the bicycle are always a fascinating read for me. Just when you think that everything has been uncovered, nuggets of historical goodness are dug up, cleaned and polished for all the world to see. At first glance, the title seems a bit optimistic. Surely there can't be THAT much to write about on the subject. The Bicycle and the Bush, however, is filled with brilliant stories, anecdotes and historical references. Australia is in no way a shining light for bicycle culture in a modern context but what an astonishing role the bicycle played in building the nation between 1890-1920. It never ceases to amaze me when writers produce a work that requires so much research. In addition to a constant flow of nuggets, the book is richly illustrated. At left...

1966 – Bikes at Blundell Elementary School. Continuing the series of bicycle photos that show cycling as a normal transport form in cities, we have moved on to Vancouver, Canada. I used to be seen in the city, riding a crappy bike in regular clothes down from Lynn Valley and North Van, over the Lion's Gate to work downtown in the late 1980's. Or riding around downtown and Kitsalano in the early 1990's.  1943 – Canadian Youth Hostel bicycle hike at the grizzly bear cage in the Stanley Park Zoo. 1943 – Bicycle hike at Douglas Park. 1940s – A boy examines his new bicycle license. 1943 – Lumberman’s Arch. 1932 – Acrobats at the Vancouver Exhibition (now, PNE) 1943 – July 1st celebration in Richmond. 1890s – Bicycle racers and friends at Brockton Point.

Readers may recall the post about the City of Copenhagen's respect for citizens' Desire Lines. The above photo shows a temporary bicycle lane on a stretch of sidewalk that bicycle users kept using. The City tested out a bike lane there. The original post is here: Subconscious Democracy and Desire , where you can read about the concept of Desire Lines, too. The temporary Desire Line has now been made permanent and bicycle users on this stretch are no longer rolling over the traffic laws. Instead, their Desire Line has been made legal. Desire Lines can be big or small. Here's another little example near Dybbøls Bridge. Cyclists coming down from the bridge would invariably roll down the bank here, instead of carrying on to the intersection 100 m, or so, behind the camera.

Vintage shots from Canberra. Photos that some avid cyclists and most car lobbyists DON'T want you to see in case you get the idea that cycling is a normal, everyday transport form performed in regular clothes and on any ol' bicycle. God forbid. One of our readers found a film in the national archives and these shots are a screen grab. They feature Vintage Cycle Chic on the streets of the Australia capital in the 1950's. The shots feature office workers heading out from work for their lunch break. When I'm travelling and speaking I always encourage local bicycle advocates to get digging in their local archives to find similar photos of the bicycle's role in the history of the city. Simply because such images have been forgotten for more than a generation and they serve to bring the reality of bicycle transport to the surface once again. Using the past to illustrate the future.

83 year-old woman outraced the tsunami on her bicycle. Amazing. Via @pickledtreat s on Twitter.

At the core of everything we do here at Copenhagenize lies a simple celebration of the bicycle in every form. Of the bicycle as a liberating transport form for broken cities. Of the bicycle as the most effective form of indepedent mobility. Of the bicycle's historical role as liberator of the working classes and of women. Of the bicycle's role in impoverished nations in Africa and beyond. Everything we do here on the blog and, more specifically, at our company is geared towards bringing the celebratory, liberating qualities of the bicycle to societies that once knew them but that have lost touch with them. We love the bicycle, we love the bicycle squeaking cheerfully under the asses of Citizen Cyclists everywhere and we salute the bicycle's role in the development of our societies for the past 125 odd years. We embrace it. We celebrate it. This is a man carrying goods on a bicycle after the Americans bombed Nagasaki with an atomic bomb in 1945. As ever, the bicycle ...

Already one of the world's great bicycle nation, Japan is seeing a bicycle boom in the wake of the earthquake and tsunami. Here are some photos featuring bicycles in the ravaged tsunami zone.