The Life-Sized City Blog

Fools & Roads - The Arrogance of Space in Moscow By James Thoem / Copenhagenize Design Co. After an unreal week of ribbon cuttings, bike parades and Russian saunas in our client city of Almetyevsk, Tatarstan , the Copenhagenize Design Co. team retreated to Moscow to see what Europe’s second largest city has to offer. Sure enough, there was no shortage of awesome sights, fantastic parties and delicious food. But what hit us right away was the sheer scale of the city. Stalinist era administrative and residential building blocks taking cues from Viennese facades and neoclassical styles were blown out of proportion. Any one of Stalin’s gigantic ‘Seven Sisters’ skyscrapers always seemed to loom on the horizon. Most oppressive of all, however, were the roads. The roads! We’re talking about a network of roads 8 to 14 lanes wide stretching through the entire city. Uptown, downtown, suburbs and all. And of course, traffic never ceased to fill the city ( Check out Taras Grescoe’s Str...

Moscow Cyclist - from the Moscow Cycle Chic photo set . The Russian president Medvedev has just wrapped up a state visit to Denmark. During the back slapping/see-we're-best-of-friends press conference about all matter of stuff, a Russian journalist asked a question that caused both the Danish PM and the Russian president to smile. The woman asked PM Lars Løkke Rasmussen about the many cyclists in Copenhagen, " How hard was it, from an investment perspective, to make Copenhagen a bicycle-friendly city? " She then asked Medvedev what his opinion was about the bicycle as transport, as she was puzzled by seeing so few cyclists on the streets of St. Petersborg . The PM gave all the credit to the City of Copenhagen for the high level of cycling in the city and underlined that it was an effort that has taken several years. " But basically, it is the public's demand for bicycle infrastructure that makes it happen. Danes want to cycle and that puts pressure on cities to m...

With all the travelling I've been doing lately comes the fact that I have borrowed a number of different bikes. I often consider taking my Mobiky folding bike with me, but since I invariably meet up with readers or like-minded people, there always seem to be bikes nearby. On my recent visit to New York, Johnathan was amazingly kind enough to let me borrow his Bullitt TNT cargo bike from Larry vs Harry . Johnathan flew to Copenhagen earlier this year just to buy one and ship it home. He provided me with not only the bike but two locks, a pump, a map of the city and a tool kit. Totally brilliant. He cycles in cycling shoes so the only hitch was that I had to adjust to pedalling on clipless pedals in my regular shoes, but that was no big deal. It was amazing how many conversations I struck up with people when I rode around on the bike. I'm on the Manhattan Bridge, stopped to take some photos, and a couple of workers on the railway shouted at me to come over. They wanted to know a...