The Life-Sized City Blog

Spotted in the Danish town of Fredericia. A bicyle pump and a DIY repair workshop with tools. For use by the public. Great bicycle symbolism on the urban landscape. Oh and while we're at it... that old myth about Denmark being flat... you're confusing us with the Netherlands. Copenhagen, certainly, is nice and even with only a few hills but farther west you'll find some decent topography. Like in Fredericia. Citizen Cyclists crawl up this hill on bicycles like they've done for 125 years. Oh, and coast happily down, too, of course. In fact, in the Danish national anthem, the hills and valleys are praised. A friend of mine, Tom, went on a cycle holiday in northern Jutland and the hills surprised the hell out of him ... Denmark's second city, Aarhus, is pretty similar to most of Portland or Seattle. And yet they have over 25% modal share for bicycles.

Copenhagenize has recieved a leaked public service film from behind the fortified borders of North Korea that provides insight into the classic manipulative nature of a well-oiled propaganda machine. Above is a classic Communist propaganda film from North Korea showing the typical use of children in emotional propaganda praising the State and The Great Leader, yada yada. Using children is a classic - and quite regrettable - tactic in such countries. The Soviets were also well versed in using children to promote their ideology , as were most Communist states. Here is the leaked video that Copenhagenize recieved. It hails from the northern province of Northern Yoo Lan, far from the capital. An agricultural area with an adbundance of tractors and a tradition for using vehicles more than in the populated cities. Their dialect is difficult to interpret but we've learned that the propaganda film is the intiative of the People's Committee for Glorious Promotion of Farm Vehicles and Sa...

Photo: Joan Karlsen/ jv.dk Pretty much everywhere you go in the countryside there are dedicated bicycle lanes running parallel to the roads, enabling cyclists to ride from town to town with the same accessibility as motorists. There are, however, black spots on the map that lack high-quality separated infrastructure. The national government's financial boost for bicycles from last year [launched on my birthday, actually] has now transformed into projects that are actually being built. 1 billion kroner [$200 million] was offered up for bicycle projects and it resulted in a storm of applications from towns, cities and orgs wanting funds for a variety of things. Above is a bicycle lane being built between two towns in Jutland. The article from the provincial newspaper jv.dk is about how it ended up being 800,000 kroner [$160,000] cheaper because the costs for archeological digs was less than planned and lower labour costs than expected. It's part of a 5 or 6 km stretch connectin...

Cyclists crossing the bicycle bridge over the harbour in Randers were rewarded with hot cocoa last week. Randers is a provincial town in Jutland with about 60,000 citizens. The city's traffic department and the European Union programme Trendy Travel and Beredskabstjenesten [anyone have a good translation for THAT?] set up a table and offered winter cyclists a hot drink of chocolate goodness in the morning as a pat on the back for cycling in this year's harsh winter. Not everyone fancied stopping - cycling is A to B business in Denmark and when you leave A you generally just want to get to B - but a number of people took up the offer of cocoa. Like Ilse Andreasen, above. She rides her bicycle to work all year round, except for about five days when it's too slippery. She said to Randers Amts newspaper that it has to be exceptionally cold before she freezes. Good on you, Ilse. The free cocoa is the first of a series of initiatives scheduled for the spring that will place foc...

Intersection in a rural area of Northern Denmark. The fully separated bike lane next to the road, typical for areas like this, is visible on the right of the photo. A travel writer friend of mine, Tom Hall, has posted his account of his cycling tour of northern Denmark on his blog . Cycling in Denmark - Aalborg to Skagen . Fits well with the recent post about the national cycling routes and downloadable maps and all that . An excerpt about the national cycle network: " The result served as the blueprint for our own National Cycle Network – and is a boon for holidaymakers. It only goes wrong when you ignore it and attempt to build your own route visiting nearby places with silly-sounding names like Pajhede Skov and Uggerby. I learnt this to my cost mid-morning, when pondering that the bloke I was passing on my left hitting golf balls looked just like the bloke I’d passed twenty minutes ago on my right. He was the same chap. Lesson learnt: stick to the signed route. Chastened, I r...