The Life-Sized City Blog

Let's just get to it, shall we. Cyclists are not random boxes of corn flakes that you store up on a shelf, out of sight - out of mind. They are urban citizens contributing as much as the next - often more - to urban life. Like pedestrians and public transport users, they are best served at street level as integral threads woven into the rich urban fabric to contribute to the beautiful complexities of city life. Anthropologically, socially, financially. For over a century we have understood the necessity of Best Practice infrastructure . We have tried and tested it with hundreds and hundreds of millions of people - and perfected it. We have measured and gauged it in order to understand it. We have regarded it as a beautiful, functional thing and designed it accordingly. For 7000 years we have lived together in cities, on equal footing. In the splendid democracy of urban space.  The streets were the most democratic spaces in the history of homo sapiens. Super Bicycle Sna...

Urban logistics is just one of the many challenges facing our cities. After Copenhagenize worked for three years on the European Union project Cyclelogistics, we have cargo bikes on the brain and provide cargo bike logistics as one of our services . We also live in a city with 40,000 cargo bikes in daily use. As ever, we look for solutions not only for other cities, but our own. During the Cyclelogistics project we determined that there is a massive potential for shifting goods delivery to bikes and cargo bikes. 51% of all motorised private and commercial goods transport in EU cities could be done on bicycles or cargo bikes . Great. Let's do that. But how to do it best? Lots of small companies are already operating in cities with last-mile service for packages, which is great. DHL is rocking Dutch cities with cargo bike deliveries and UPS and FedEx are getting their game face on, too. But we need to think bigger and better. The City of Copenhagen created the framework for th...

When you have been doing bicycle culture for a while, things tend to get easier and more straightforward. In a country where design is an integral part of daily life, things become even more functional and simplified. The City of Copenhagen has a Design Manual that covers all aspects of the urban landscape. The document title, when translated, is Design Manual for Urban Spaces and Parks. It's in Danish, not suprisingly, and the pdf can be viewed/downloaded here . There is also a document entitled Design Policy for Urban Space in the City of Copenhagen (a pdf as well) , which deals with identity and more overall philosophy regarding our urban spaces. The aforementioned Design Manual is more concrete. It spells out, in no uncertain terms, the design guidelines for the city. From style of garbage cans and manholes to the construction of bicycle infrastructure. On the subject of infrastructure, the Manual is refreshingly simple. You may recall that there are only four types of ...

When you come from Copenhagen, cycling in Amsterdam is like coming home. To a different kind of home, sure, but still home. An eclectic home filled with books piled up in no particular order, funky art on the walls, maybe dirty dishes in the sink but cool music on the stereo. Different from your home with clean lines, white floors and carefully placed furniture and minimalistic art on the walls. I love cycling in Amsterdam. It's a wonderfully human experience. You meet the eyes of strangers all day long because of the layout of the city and the constantly changing infrastructure. I've often said that Amsterdam cyclists resemble swarming bees whereas in Copenhagen they are more like marching ants. This difference is largely due to the layout of the cities. In Amsterdam the streets are curvy and confusing and you perform many left and right turns in the course of a day. In Copenhagen, there are primarily long, straight stretches. Most of Copenhagen outside the medieval c...