The Life-Sized City Blog

Brilliantly simple and effective video about the societal costs of automobile use. Filled with nuggets of wisdom, effectively communicated. Love the bit about how cars are like gasses - it doesn't matter how large the container grows, the molecules will still occupy the whole space. Build more roads, more cars come. Welcome to Square One. Amazing how after 75 years of traffic engineers and planners failing constantly and consistently at solving traffic problems, we still give them outrageous amounts of funding to keep... failing. Seriously, what other vocation in the world gets so much money to play with without having produced ANY results for three quarters of a century? The Mexican office of the Institute for Transportation & Development Policy (ITDP) produced this film - in Spanish with English subtitles. Thanks to Ludwig from UITP for the link .

These posters are up all over the city of Frederiksberg at the moment, where I live. They read, quite simply: "Idling your motor - Maximum 1 minute - When you idle your motor your car emits chemicals dangerous to health. Show consideration and turn off your motor." Hmm. Your car does it. Like it's alive and has a mind of it's own. Why, oh why, can it not just state that YOU emits dangerous chemcials when YOU idle your car? It's the motorist who is doing it, controlling the situation. Let's slap that responsibility on that motorist with a simple rewording, for god's sake. With THAT said, there have been rules in place for many years in Danish cities regarding how long you can idle your motor. They don't apply to traffic jams, but just when you're sitting there... um... idle. The regulations in Frederiksberg for this one minute limit have been in place since 1989, based on recommendations from the Environment Ministry back in 1982. Poll...

For one brilliant week in September 2011, the air pollution levels from car traffic in Copenhagen fell by a whopping 30%. The City of Copenhagen took a bold step in planning the Road Racing World Championships in cycling this year by deciding to close off most of the city centre to car traffic during the event. While most people have tried to calculate the massive boost the event had - and will have - on tourism, Copenhagen's brand and what not, it turns out the event improved the air quality for the citizens of the city. It didn't have anything directly to do with the professional cyclists racing around the city. The ban on cars in the city centre of Copenhagen meant that 60,000 cars and trucks were kept out and 75 streets were car-free. Hans Christian Andersen Boulevard during the World Championships. A few months before the event, I had an idea. I thought about the study done after 9/11 where temperatures were measured in the US for the five days that air traffic was...

Golly. What a lovely place to live. When I was in Ferrara, Italy a couple of weeks ago I was having a good chat with a colleague who works for the City. We were looking at a map of the city and he was filling me in about the various traffic and bicycle-friendly initiatives in place. For example, Ferrara doesn't have a congestion charge - it has a congestion BAN. Non-residents are not allowed to enter and goods transport must pay a fee. Eight cameras are installed around the city to photograph number plates. If you're caught in the city without a permit, you are fined €100. Ah, simplicity. Anyway, he was telling me about a main route through the city and plans to tackle the motorists who use it. He called them parasites . I thought it was a bit out of character for him but he kept using the word. Finally, I had to ask why he was using the word and he looked at me quizzically and said that it was simply the word they used. Parasites. First attested in English 1539, the w...

Steve from Bristol sent us an amusing email stemming from the recent Every Time a Bicycle is Stolen a Fairy Dies post . As he puts it, Every Time You Buy Lycra, a Polar Bear Dies. He explains: "It's worth noting that since 2004, Lycra and coolmax fabrics have been owned by Koch Industries . The brothers who own most of this company don't believe in global warming - and also think if it is true, it could be good for the planet. Ironically, they are one of the top 10 air polluters in the US, according to a report from last year by the University of Massachusetts at Amherst’s Political Economy Research Institute. Here's an article about the brothers from NPR . And here's an article about the brothers and their support of right-wing causes, including the bit about air pollution from The New Yorker . The conclusion is: if you own old Lycra or Coolmax you are untainted. If, however, you bought stuff after 2004 then you fund Sarah Palin and other mad people,...

I've been quietly looking into noise recently. There was an article back in November in a Danish newspaper about the negative effect traffic noise has on the population. A good, informative article stating that 800,000 Danes are exposed to harmful levels of traffic pollution in the form of noise alone. That's about 15% of the population. The article goes on about how very little is being done in Danish cities about reducing traffic noise. 400 million kroner were earmarked by the current government for noise reduction in 2009 but the government only manages the national roads. They have spent money on reducing noise on motorways but it's the municipalities that manage the city streets - along which most people live, 90% of them in fact - and here there is little being done. Shockingly so. What didn't really surprise me was that the article didn't mention anything about speed reduction. It was all about windows. Classic ' ignoring the bull ' talk onc...

Finally. Almost a year after the Copenhagenize Think Tank developed the rational idea that automobiles should be forced to display health warning stickers identical to those on cigarettes packs , a car was spotted in Copenhagen sending the right message. Right there, in bold letters, an indisputable truth about the nature of the machine in urban settings. Okay, okay. It's actually the company name for a tattoo parlour here in Copenhagen - Toxic Ink . But don't tell anyone that. By the way the chap from the parlour is charming and enjoys posing for photographs. Health warnings for cars are available as small stickers in the Copenhagenize/Cycle Chic shop . Slap one on your neighbour's car. Giggle.

It's not like cities and towns around the world lack science or stats regarding the benefits of working towards increasing the number of citizens who ride bicycles. You can't swing a Brompton around by the saddle without hitting a pile of studies and research. Nevertheless, here's one more that we'll tirelessly broadcast across the internet in the vain hope that people will wake up and smell the liveable urban landscape. It's not THAT surprising to read that pollution in cities has nasty effects on public health. Now, however, it turns out that it can knock points off of the IQs of children. 4.5 points to be precise. Researchers have found that the hydrocarbons from traffic can lower a child's IQ by the age of three. The hydrocarbons have much the same effect as lead, stunting mental development. So reports Utne , who link to an article at Science Daily . Here's a thought... considering the fact that the hydrocarbon levels are higher INSIDE cars ... does tha...

The Mayor in charge of traffic and environment, Klaus Bondam , has a new idea. He has been trying, together with the Lord Mayor Ritt Bjerregaard , to implement road pricing in Copenhagen in order to limit the amount of motorised traffic. The problem is that the national government is of the right-wing variety and they are blocking the plans. Even though the studies from cities that have road pricing are overwhelmingly positive. So he has now proposed something City Hall calls ' Intelligent Traffic Control '. It involves setting up sensors that measure air pollution in Copenhagen and the levels of pollution they report will regulate the traffic heading into the city. If the pollution levels are too high on any particular day, all the traffic lights on the main roads into the city will turn red and stay red longer than normal. The time the traffic lights are green will be reduced by 10 percent. Motorists will be informed by the internet or text messages before they leave for work...

A Dutch study has proved, yet again, that the level of dangerous microparticles are higher inside cars than on bikes. I posted about how Traffic Kills More People Than Traffic Accidents before, but this recent survey reconfirms the science. Despite the air pollution it is healthier to cycle in traffic than sitting in a car. The levels of particles in the air are greater inside a vehicle than on the bike lanes. So even though a cyclist breathes in more air than a motorist, the concentration of microparticles is lower for the cyclist. The health benefits of cycling greatly overshadow the harm caused by breathing polluted air, the study adds. The study was carried out by Gerad Hoek from Utrecht University and presented in the magazine for the Dutch cyclist organisation, Fietzersbond. If a cyclist wishes to avoid unhealthy particles, it is recommended that he or she avoids areas with heavy traffic and rush hour periods. In particular, avoiding trucks and scooters exhaust is of...