The Life-Sized City Blog

This article has been updated and appears on Medium.com So what exactly happens when you're a major train operator and you suddenly make it free for passengers to take bikes on your trains? We know that some rail operators in various parts of the world would have you believe that chaos would ensue and that they would lose passengers. Numbers from Greater Copenhagen and Danish State Railways (DSB), however, seem to indicate that the opposite is true. The S-train network that serves Greater Copenhagen is arguably the most integral part of the public transport mix in the region. Buses, Metro and regional trains are vital parts of the network, but the red S-trains stretching out into Europe's third-largest urban sprawl are in many ways the backbone. The S-train network - with 2 Metro lines at bottom right. Bicycles were allowed on the trains for a fee, which was never prohibitive. Until 2010, that is. In that year, DSB announced that bicycles would be made free on all their...

There are many ways to combine transport forms. One of the unsung modes is combining the bicycle with a taxi. In Denmark, every taxi is equipped with bike racks to accommodate two bicycles. All taxi companies weld them on themselves, there is no one solution as it is simple enough to make. No bells and whistles. No Kickstarter campaign. No nonsense. The racks themselves are in the trunk of the taxi and if you have a bicycle, the driver hops out and sticks them in the slots and attaches your bike(s) with a bungy cord. There is an additional fee of about 10 or 15 kroner ($2-3) if you need to get your bicycle home with a taxi. For whatever reason. A flat tire or other defect, you're in a hurry, it's raining and you forgot your waterproof mascara or if the guy/girl you met at that bar and are heading home with doesn't have a bike - and you want to get home in a hurry... All a part of a truly integrated bicycle culture. I was suprised to learn in this travel film about ...