The Life-Sized City Blog

Friday night bicycle traffic in Copenhagen. The European Cyclists Federation [ECF], present here in Copenhagen for the conference, sent a letter to all the members of European Parliament's delegation to the Climate Conference. It is short and sweet and to the point. Dear Member of the European Parliament’s Delegation to Copenhagen Summit, Urban traffic is responsible for 40% of CO2 emissions. Transport is part of the problem. Cycling is part of the solution. A tripling of cycling (*) in Europe at the expense of individual motorized trips, would save 49.1 million tons of CO2 or 5% of CO2 transport emissions. [*] See The Charter of Brussels . You can read the letter to the MEPs here, as a pdf . Brilliant. The European Cyclists’ Federation was founded in 1983 by 12 bicycle user associations. It has now 60 member organizations in 37 countries. In another recent newsletter email from the ECF they announced the work of the ECF's Helmet Working Group . The ECF Helmet Working Group i...

Once you start getting into traffic safety it becomes a Pandora's box with a very loose lid. Daylight Running Lights. This is a new one for me. Laws requiring cars to have their headlights on all the time. Living in Denmark, this is normal. All cars have their headlights on and are equipped with systems that turn them on as soon as you start the car. I remember driving a Danish car in Spain and so many kind motorists and pedestrians kept gesturing to me that my lights were on but I didn't know how to turn them off. I always figured that given the limited light in the winter [and fall and spring] in Scandinavia, this was a good idea. So discovering an entire movement against Daylight Running Lights was a surprise and an interesting one at that. Our reader Charlie sent a link in the comments section of this post . This website called Drivers Against Daytime Running Lights is quite clear about their opposition to potential laws. I have a default setting that causes me to be scept...