The Life-Sized City Blog

The Bicycle as a symbol of progress, of renewal, of promising times ahead. This is not a new concept. Indeed it has been around since the invention of the bicycle. Many bicycle posters at end of the 19th century featured promising themes like liberation, progress, freedom. Here's an example: In this beautiful poster, there is a lot of metaphorical gameplay. The young woman is riding a bicycle to the future. Dressed in white and seemingly casting fresh flowers as though leaving a trail for us to follow. The old woman is looking backwards to the past as she sits in a bed of thorns, almost resigned to the fact that the future - the bicycle - is passing her by. When people in most cultures see art or photgraphy, our brain sees movement from left to right and interprets the piece based on that. The German historian and psychologist Rudolf Arnheim who wrote, among other books, " Art and visual perception – A psychology of the creative eye " noticed that the way many cult...

It's often in the details. If you're cycling down the street in the background (which is my back street) you're going to do one of two things when you get to the end. If you're turning right, it's easy. You turn onto the cycle track and continue on. If, however, you want to turn left you have to get across the street to the cycle track in the foreground. The City of Frederiksberg made it easier for by claiming half a car parking spot for the purpose of creating a passageway between the parked cars. A few painted lines and a pictogram. Here's another example just around the corner.