The Life-Sized City Blog

Here's what the parking situtation looked like outside my daughter's daycare today. It was the annual summer party. Normally parents pick up their offspring over a few hours each afternoon so it's cool to see the bicycles all gathered there at once. All manner of bicycles. You name it. Crappy old vintage short johns, fancy cargo bikes, bike seats, you name it. Oh, and I probably missed about 50 bikes or so when shooting this. There are about 200 children between 8 months and 6 years in this combined daycare/kindergarten.

The vast majority of parents to children at our daycare drop off/pick up their kids on bicycles. Last Friday the children dressed up in costumes to celebrate Fastelavn, the millenia-old Nordic pagan version of the carnival celebrating the approaching spring. The parents were invited to hang out and have a cup of coffee and a fastelavn pastry, which is why there is congestion in the bicycle parking out front. Normally, the drop off / pick up times are scattered all over the morning / afternoon depending on each family's routine so it was cool to see the armada of bicycles all at once. This is just one angle. I was in a hurry. The bicycles continue around the corner and into the beyond. It's different at schools where the bell rings daily at 08:00 so there is an intense flow of bicycles approaching my son's school in the 10-15 minutes up to the bell. Get there early to get a good bike parking spot.