The Life-Sized City Blog

I'll be speaking in Paris today - 21 November 2015 - about bicycle urbanism and lessons to be learned from Copenhagen. Paris has declared that it aims to be the world's best bicycle city in the world by 2020. This is simply not possible with the current sub-standard understanding of Best Practice infrastructure. The current Mayor Anne Hildalgo, has some good ideas, which we've reviewed here, but until the City understands the basics of bicycle infrastructure,  not much is going to happen. While there are good examples of the City employing Best Practice infrastructure (above left) there are still strange things imagined in the heads of engineers and planners who have little idea of how to do it. Like the weird bi-directional stuff you see like above, right. Or using bus lanes as bicycle lanes on long boulevards where buses can get up to speed (above, left), or strange turn lanes like atabove, right. Best Practice has been established. It's ridiculous to t...

I have always been fascinated by how the bicycle has muscled its way into various languages. There are numerous bicycle references in Danish that are used by reflex, without any direct reference to a bicycle anecdote. I started wondering if this is the case in other languages and have scribbled notes down based on conversations with colleagues and friends. According to Danish historian Finn Wodschow, there are more references to the bicycle in Danish literature, music and film than in any other country. Not surprisingly, there are a few bicycle-related expressions that have embedded themselves even deeper in the linguistic culture. If you know of any others, in other languages, feel free to add them in the comments. DANISH Kæden er hoppede af "The chain fell off" is used when something goes wrong. Example: "Sorry I'm late, but the chain fell off for me today". You can also claim that the chain fell off for someone else, if they are having a bad day...

The current mayor of Paris – Bertrand Delanoë – is a living liveable city legend. While at the reins of the city for two terms, he has transformed the French capital in so many positive ways. You have to love a mayor quoted as saying, "The fact is that cars no longer have a place in the big cities of our time". 30 km/h zones, traffic calming and... the Vélib' bike sharing system are all part of his modern legacy. The number of bicycle users in Paris has increased since the launch of Vélib'. Delanoë, however, is stepping down after the next election. Today we're going to have a critical look at what the frontrunner for the mayoral post in the city, Anne Hildago, is proposing if elected. She is already in charge of urban planning since Delanoë was elected to his second term. She knows the ropes, so to speak. In her agenda, Anne Hidalgo has proposed the following: to extend the Vélib' network to the whole metropol...

Photes via:  Michel & Augustin We kick off another great year for cargo bikes with wonderful news from France. The City of Boulogne-Billancourt, near Paris, is launching a project called 100 Triporteurs - 100 Cargo Bikes - in Boulogne-Billancourt. It's a project that Copenhagenize Design Co. loves and it is perfect inspiration for our Cyclelogistics.eu project. The company Michel & Augustin is known for both its creative marketing and its delicious cookies. They were looking for a new media to communicate through and that can contribute to a positive paradigm shift in urban life. Together with the Danish cargo bike brand, Nihola , they are launching a cargo bike project aimed at changing peoples perceptions about how to get around the city. Thanks to this project, citizens in Boulogne-Billancourt can buy a Nihola cargo bike for €1000, instead of €2600 . They can also be a part of the new community of Citizen Cyclists who want to make some life changes and a...

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly Cyclists’ protests can be a good thing arising out of a bad thing. Confused? by Pedro Madruga The Good The number of actions protesting for more cyclist and pedestrian rights is becoming more common, large-scaled and with increased outcomes.  Most of us are aware of the protests in Denmark and Netherlands during the 70’s, aiming mostly for increased safety. If you're not aware of that then here’s a whole article waiting for you here . Back then, a message was sent to politicians: the ink was made of cyclists and pedestrians and the paper was the city hall square – as you can see in the below picture (Copenhagen). It figuratively said: “enough”. And it worked. Without violence, just pure human kinetics. Throughout history there were several protests were cyclists and pedestrians claimed for better rights. Just last year, a massive protest gathered 10 thousand cyclists in the UK and 50 thousand in Italy .  And the list goes on, whet...

Photo: Maximilien Brice, © CERN I like the simple contrast in this photo. A man working on the CERN Large Hadron Collider - one of the most impressive engineering projects in history with it's 27 km long circular tunnel that is 175 metres underground beneath France and Switzerland. It is built to carry out one of the boldest scientific experiments in history. And the man pedalled to work on that bicycle there on the left. Or as Evan, who sent us the link, puts it: "Seeing this photo of a fellow member of the world's scientific community, I can't decide if I'm more jealous of the trails he gets to ride or of the fantastic LHC he's repairing." Indeed. A propos nothing, CERN has quite a cool kids website with science games 'n stuff .

On my recent visit to France I noticed the bicycle on many different adverts and brochures. It's no secret that the bicycle has become high profile in advertising over the past year or so, but there were many positive images. Like this advert for Promod , an online fashion shop. Even on the cardboard sleeve that my room key came in at the hotel in Paris there was a happy cycling couple. At Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport, an advert for HSBC bank featured Asian urban cyclists. A brochure for the city of La Rochelle. And from elsewhere, these adverts featuring the bicycle: Advert for the clothing company Killah. Tourism brochure for the Swedish province of Skåne [Scania]. Advert for Vodaphone in Prague. Advert for The House of Fraser clothing store in London. All this symbolism is, of course, good. Cementing the bicycle as a normal part of life and not merely reserved for 'enthusiasts'. Are we approaching that all important tipping point in some regions? It seems so. Let...

With all the hype about urban bike sharing and the Vélib/Velov/Bycyklen/Bicing/Bixi/etc/etc let's send a warm thought to the forgotten city that started it all, shall we? La Rochelle , on the French Atlantic coast had a legendary mayor back in the 1970's. Michel Crepeau. He was quite the urban planning revolutionary and the rest of France thought he was quite mad. At that time progress was built in concrete and asphalt. Inspired by Copenhagen , he created pedestrian streets in the city centre and, in 1974, he started a bike share programme. Both Amsterdam and Copenhagen flirted with bike share programmes back in the 60's, but they didn't last. La Rochelle was the first city to make it stick. Until Copenhagen, in 1995, started their City Bike (Bycyklen) system and the idea started to spread. He bought a load of yellow bikes and slapped them into racks by the harbour. The original idea was merely "take one, use it, bring it back." These days you can borrow ...