The Life-Sized City Blog

You know you live in a a car-centric city when it's not allowed for bicycle users to turn right on red. Despite the fact that it's legal in many European cities in France, Belgium and be tested in many others, like Basel. Despite the fact that it is one of the most obvious things to implement to encourage cycling and keep bicycle users safe. A French friend new to Copenhagen had seen that a few Copenhageners turned right on red - only a small number, of course, as we've figured out - but one day in April he was stopped by Torben. Torben is a civil servant - a policeman - and that day he was out trying to meet the quotas necessary to please his boss. Bicycle users are the low-hanging fruit for such situations. Going after motorists is time-consuming and tiring. Just stand at the usual spots and hand out fines for minor infractions - many of which that don't have a place in the law books in a modern city. So Torben was just doing his job, as dictated by his sup...

If you have been reading this blog for a while, you'll know all too well about what we call " Ignoring the Bull ". How in this car-centric society, non-motorised victim blaming is the norm. The status quo. You may also know the media tendency - mostly in non-cycling countries - to report about cyclists killed or injured in collisions with motorised traffic. "Hit by a truck/fast moving vehicle.... wasn't wearing a helmet." Written by journalists who are hopelessly uninformed (and perhaps uninterested) about a helmet's limited industrial design capability in collisions with vehicles . They never seem to write "Man fell from 3rd floor. Wasn't wearing a helmet." You get the point. What we're seeing lately is how the everpresent Culture of Fear is encroaching on our lives in a new(ish) way. The safety nannies and their lackies are now desperately trying to dictate what you, the citizen, wears. They are trying to make fashion choices fo...

Out of the many articles on the subject of rationality and logic here on the blog, you may remember our proposal for health warnings on automobiles from a while back. Another logical idea that we have pitched around is forcing motorists to add reflective material to their cars in order for cyclists and pedestrians to see them better. It usually garners a chuckle and a "yeah, why don't we?!" But why don't we? It's not such a crazy idea. According to a study from Monash University Accident Research Centre in Australia (the same people who developed protective headwear for... motorists - do you have yours yet?) black cars are more likely to be involved in crashes, whilst white, gold and yellow cars are least likely to suffer the same fate. It was a 20 year study using data from more than a whopping 850,000 accidents. That's what we like. Data to back up an idea. Black cars are 47% more likely to be involved in crashes. Black cars were the bad guys, b...

Mogens Knudsen, Operativ leder i færdelspolitiet ved Københavns Politi There's a man in Copenhagen named Mogens. Mogens Knudsen. What's interesting about this man is that virtually every single day he goes to work he hurts and, in many situations, kills people. Indirectly, of course. What's more, Mogens actually gets paid to do so. He is a civil servant with a badge. A policeman. The head of the Traffic Dept in Copenhagen Police. Mogens is not particularly fond of those fellow citizens of his who ride bicycles in Copenhagen. He has for many years and has always been vocal about it. If Mogens seems scary, it gets worse. Mogens has colleagues who feel the same way and who also get paid to dish out injury and, in worst cases, death. Mogens and his colleagues make the Danish Road Safety Council's crusade against Danish bicycle culture look like piecemeal. Welcome to the Danish Police. Welcome to The New Copenhagen . By all accounts, Mogens and police seem to ...

It's no longer the city you may think it is, it seems. The Danish Justice Minister, Morten Bødskov , is the latest antagonist to restrict the growth of Copenhagen's bicycle culture. He has proposed that Danish municipalities be allowed to remove bicycles parked incorrectly. It is currently only the police who are authorised to do so. That there are many bicycles parked outside bike racks is certainly a fact and an interesting issue. Look at the cartoon at the top. It's from a legendary Danish satirist, Storm P., who was always keen to highlight the cycling situation, as he was a bicycle user himself. We've translated his pisstake on the anti-cyclist mood in the 1930's previously . The cartoon reads, " Since they're considering to use sidewalks for bicycle parking, it'll be rather difficult to walk on them ." There were many more bicycles in use in Copenhagen in 1938 than there are now. Parking was an issue then, as it is now. It's bas...

Oliver Green and his daughters. Photo: Courtesy of Oliver Green. UPDATE: MONDAY 02 APRIL 2012 Here's the latest update from Oliver: Last update before heading out for the Easter break. I finally received a call from the town hall - the Councilor for Safety from the ruling People's Party wants to meet with me together with the Head of the Municipal Police to discuss my complaint. They're gonna have to wait till after the holiday though as we're heading out later today. I had a productive meeting with David Cierco councilor and spokesperson for the local Socialist Party group in Pozuelo. Like the UPyD they too have cycling and bike lanes high on their agenda ( http://www.gmspozuelo.org/pozuelo-dinamico/ ) but is is very hard to get through in this town as the PP has had an absolute majority for the last 30 years... What I really found quite surprising was their claim that the PP in Spain is anti-bike because they see the car as progress and as central to their ...

As we highlighted last week , the Danish police announced they would be going after bicycle users this week and sure enough, they were at it. Hiding behind a tree along The Lakes, as above. This officer was largely stopping bicycle users who were scooting over the sidewalk, as illustrated below, in order to turn right while avoiding the hundred or so bicycle users waiting at the red light. Yes, hundreds of the world's best behaved cyclists waiting for red lights and once in a while a citizen on a bicycle rolls across the sidewalk (red arrows), only to be stopped by this police officer. I watched for a while and the policeman spent more time leaning against a tree than writing tickets. And this was rush hour. He did get to unfreeze the ink in his pen a few times though. None of the bicycle users who cut the corner did so at any great speed and none of them bothered any pedestrians on their A to B journey. Anette Jerup Jørgensen is a researcher at Danish Cyclists Federation ...

It's something we read regularly in the Danish press. The police had out traffic fines in order to make their statistics look good and to reach certain goals set for each police district. The article, above, is from November, 2011, but there are articles about it every year. The photo in the article is police handing out fines to bicycle users in Copenhagen. Cyclists are often the easiest target. You park your police car or police bicycle ( illegally ) on a busy street and starting writing fines. It is often near the end of the year that police - if it looks like they're lagging behind in reaching the goal - will hit the streets to hand out of flurry of fines. The article highlights the irony that in many police districts they become so focused on traffic fines that they use less time on crime. Jørgen Jensen, a policeman from the western suburbs, is quoted in the article as saying, "Based on the bare figures, we go after certain areas in order to reach the targets...

Los Angeles. 1900. Spring St. near 8th. The latest installment is from a city that enjoyed a modal share for bicycles of 20% at the turn of the last century and built impressive protected bicycle infrastructure like this 10 km, elevated cycle track back in 1900 . Alas, the bicycle disappeared from this area that was described like this in an 1897 newspaper article: " There is no part of the world where cycling is in greater favor than in Southern California, and nowhere on the American continent are conditions so favorable the year round for wheeling. " Thanks to our reader, Rick, we found these photographs showing the bicycle as an accepted and respected part of life in Los Angeles in the Los Angeles Public Library archives . We all know what happened when the car industry went after another competitive transport form . Burbank. 1908. First Street looking east from Yale Avenue in Claremont in 1915. Los Angeles. Ca. 1890. 632 South Broadway. Balboa. Newport...

Saw this yesterday on my way to a meeting at 1508 . Four cops were pulling over cars. Two cops in a squad car and two bicycle cops. Couldn't figure out why, but hey. Nice symbolism. Like this shot from last year. Here's the story about it . And this one outside my son's school. Here's the story about it . And here are some bicycle cops in Paris doing the same thing. The police in Melbourne, however, attend to much more important matters .

Last week I attended the National Cycling Conference in Fredericia. To my surprise, I discovered that the town was in Jutland, the Danish mainland. I thought it was on the island of Funen. So I got a geography lesson, too. I was invited by the Road Directorate and the Danish Cyclists Federation to take part in a debate with sociologist Anette Jerup Jørgensen and Mogens Knudsen, police officer and Superintendent in Copenhagen's Police Traffic Unit. Journalist Adam Hannestad from the newspaper Politiken was the moderator. Anette started by discussing some her findings regarding the behavour of cycling citizens. In the blue corner, Mogens was representing the police's tradtionally staunch conservative line that cyclists should just obey every single rule. Period. I have since learned that this is perhaps more Mogens' personal line rather than the entire Danish police. In the red corner, yours truly. I was on the other side of the scales, saying that traffic laws should b...

Okay... it's an attention-grabbing headline, sure. But it's not even my own invention. The Danish Police are going after cyclists and scooters this week across the kingdom. They do so a couple of times a year. The police are probably very good at a lot of things but let's face it... marketing isn't one of them. It's safe to say that they get all their marketing tips from the equally hopeless Danish Road Safety Council, and then they promptly make it even worse. John Sckaletz is the head of the traffic police in Copenhagen and he has actually said this week that, " The traffic law is the only law where the death penalty still applies ". He said that. That's the police's "cleverly worded campaign" at the moment. Well done! Well thought out! How very positive! The police want to "put an end to" cyclists who roll casually through a red light or across a pedestrian crossing. They are clearly of the opinion that such infractions shou...

It reads "Remember. Stop for red". I've never stopped for red here, unless pedestrians are crossing. Sue me. The police in Copenhagen don't often bother cyclists. When they do, they're kind enough to announce it in advance. This week is "Go After Cyclists" week. The police will be focusing on cyclists in the traffic in the hope of filling some quotas. Funny thing is, I don't recall ever seeing a "Go After Pedestrians" week. And I certainly don't see any long-term concerted effort to "Go After Motorists", which would save lives. But hey... Here's a blogpost from a while back about a previous, symbolic 'bike raid week' in the Danish capital in 2007. So, if you're riding around the city this week, chill. Wait until next week to navigate along your " Desire Lines " and experiment with the anthropolgical mapmaking of your personal urban mobility routes. Save your rolling casually across zebra crossings, t...