The Life-Sized City Blog

UPDATE 10 OCT 2014 The Copenhagen bike share bikes we talk about in this article have been on the streets for a few months now. The goal is that each bike is used 3 times a day - by local commuters. So far they are used 0.8 times a day - by tourists. Oops. Fail. These $10,000 shiny toys are already a tourist gimmick - like the originals in Copenhagen - and that does not encourage locals to use them. Locals never want to looks like tourists. Keep reading for more rationality. ---------- While La Rochelle, France can boast about having started the first proper bike share system in the mid-1970s , Copenhagen introduced the Bycyklen - City Bike - in 1995. Picture above and below, the bikes were cute gimmicks that lasted until late 2012. They worked on a shopping trolley system - put a 10 or 20 kroner coin in and get it back when you return it. The bikes were horrible to ride and it didn't take long for them to become tourist magnets. Most Copenhageners wouldn't touch th...

Here are some historical photos of a cargo bike life in Copenhagen. Above, King Christian X on one of his daily rides through the streets during the Second World War occupation. He always rode without official guards through the streets and was much loved for it. Here, however, he was guarded by the bicycle messengers from the company Achilleus. Here is a link to an earlier post about the Svajere - or cargo bike messengers of Copenhagen. The bicycle messengers at the headquarters of the Post & Telegraf service in 1917. Dressed splendidly. The bike messengers - or Svajere - in official service were usually uniformed until the end of the 1940s, when casual wear became the norm. The bicycle messengers for Illum department store in the 1940s, during the occupation. A double cargo bike nicknamed Skildpadden - or The Turtle - in the service of Illum department store. 1940s. The bike messenger team at Byposten messenger company. Bicycle messengers from the telegraf ser...

Copenhagen Nurse doing her rounds by bicycle . Don't be surprised if you see a cyclist in hospital whites pedalling about the city of Frederiksberg, in the middle of Copenhagen [population: 91,000]. Nurses providing post-natal care to new mothers and fathers ride around the city, and in Copenhagen as well, but treating the elderly in their own home has also proved to be beneficial. Frederiksberg Hospital sends nurses out to elderly citizens in order to treat them at home. An initiative that gives the elderly patients a greater peace of mind, but also saves money on hospitalisation. The nurses ride out to patients when a care home, a doctor or the person's home helper calls for assistance. The initiative has been in place since 2005 and it is now seen to bear fruit. Frederiksberg Hospital believes that 82% of the cycling visits have thwarted a potential hospital visit, because it was possible to treat the problem in the patient's own home. While the hospital is pl...