The Life-Sized City Blog

The neverending story of car dependency: (c) Todd Litman, 2013. " Smart Congestion Relief - Comprehensive Analysis of Traffic Congestion Costs and Congestion Reduction Benefits ". Victoria Transport Policy Institute. FUD - Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt. This is the general feeling when drivers know that the street they usually drive on, may soon be closed to vehicular traffic. This feeling has, to some degree, been used by those who decide to build new roads. In other words, we still live according to Henry Ford's motto, “With mobility comes freedom and progress”. As someone who works with urban planning this can be viewed as when the ends actually justify the means – cities scratched by black tar marks, roads planned and built with eyes closed. Now, the results of unconsidered planning are here - we feel these impacts on a daily basis. Currently, that paradigm is slowly shifting to a new one. In a rather considerable number of cities, city centres, as well as ma...

Copenhagen's famous pedestrian street "Strøget" turns 50 on September 2, 2012. There will be festivities up and down the street in celebration. Here's a post that shows the origins of the idea can be found in 1913. Originally published on 11 August 2009. I dipped into the archives the other day and found an interesting article from 1913 about traffic on the main thoroughfare in Copenhagen - ' Strøget '. In the early 1960's Strøget, the main street running east-west through the city centre, became quite famous. It was closed off to cars and transformed into a pedestrian zone. Strøget 1951 and in 1964. Strøget now. (on a very quiet morning, believe me) There were protests back then. Cries of "we're not Italians! We don't want to walk !" were heard in the city. Shopkeepers feared for their businesses. Fortunately, the idea was implemented by the City of Copenhagen. They had seen some of the great ideas by urban planner Jan Geh...

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...

I got handed a boiled sweet the other day, which is nice. Some lovely young ladies in goofy reflective vests were handing out these packets to cyclists in Copenhagen. The spiral pattern kind of matches the large warning stickers that are currently on the bike lanes at selected intersections. The text reads "Watch out for blind spots" meaning that cyclists are being warned to watch out for trucks turning right. Fair enough. But I've been looking around at the stickered intersections, like the one below. I can't for the life of me find any campaign material warning trucks and cars to watch out for cyclists and pedestrians. Not one sign. No electronic signals at an appropriate height to warn truck drivers of the prescence of cyclists on the right. Nada. It's the City's Traffic Council - Byens Trafikråd who are involved in the campaign, which has been running on and off for a couple of years. A couple of years! Still no corresponding warnings for the dri...

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about how right turns for cyclists should be allowed at red lights . So it was refreshing to click onto a link sent by a number of Danish readers this morning. The headline was enough to get us excited: Copenhagen Ready to Allow Right Turns for Cyclists at Red Lights . The national police have announced that it will be up to local authorities to decide if they wish to pass bylaws allowing right turns for cyclists at red lights as well as allowing them to continue straight on at T-intersections. The police have traditionally had a less than positive attitude towards making life easier for cyclists. Their announcement comes as a pleasant surprise. The Mayor in charge the Technical and Environmental Administration [councillor for the Dept of Transport], Bo Asmus Kjeldgaard [second from left in the above photo] says: "It's a fantastic, liberating announcment. We want to be the best bicycle city, therefore we need to get more people onto bikes. And th...

I was just reading this article " Bicyclists to LA Drivers: We are traffic " and I recalled a poster I had done last year. Isn't it time to just make this point? Fortunately, there is a silver-lining in the clouds of anti-bicycle sentiment. A spot of research in the UK has shown that sentiment towards cyclists is actually rather positive and it's improving. Read the good news at The Guardian: " Cyclists! The public thinks you're cool and normal "

Death on The Streets Another book which is so interesting that it makes my head hurt is by Robert Davis. Death on the Streets: Cars and the Mythology of Road Safety. I've been reading it for ages. A couple of pages is enough for me to put it down and reflect. It's chock full of facts and references, as well as thought-provoking observations about the role of the car in our societies. It discusses how most of the 'road safety improvements' of the past 50 years, from road design to seat belts, have actually resulted in a terrifying increase in danger from cars, which permeates all over lives and the book is also 'a social history of the terrible toll of car surpremacy...' Worldwide, between 15-20 million people have died and hundreds of millions have been permanently injured in road accidents since the beginnings of motorised society early last century. The book's publication in 1993 brought about the formation of the Road Danger Reduction Forum , of which Rob...

A reader mentioned pedestrian flags in Berkeley, California in a comment and added "I'm serious!" so I thought I'd check out this fantastic example of victim blaming in Bubble Wrap Society. He was serious. Is that scary or funny or both? Not sure. Flags are placed near intersections and the idea is that pedestrians pick one up and hold it when they wish to foolishly exercise their human right to safe urban mobility . Most of the flags have been stolen and few use them apparently. Ironically, 48 hours after these went into [non]use, a pedestrian was hit by a car. Here's what Berkeley City Councilwoman Polly Armstrong said about it at the time: "We hope over time - when drivers are paying a little more attention than that driver was - that the flags would be helpful." She added that, "Pedestrians have to be on guard and aggressive with their flags." "After hitting the pedestrian, the driver swerved into the oncoming lane and collided with ...

Once you start getting into traffic safety it becomes a Pandora's box with a very loose lid. Daylight Running Lights. This is a new one for me. Laws requiring cars to have their headlights on all the time. Living in Denmark, this is normal. All cars have their headlights on and are equipped with systems that turn them on as soon as you start the car. I remember driving a Danish car in Spain and so many kind motorists and pedestrians kept gesturing to me that my lights were on but I didn't know how to turn them off. I always figured that given the limited light in the winter [and fall and spring] in Scandinavia, this was a good idea. So discovering an entire movement against Daylight Running Lights was a surprise and an interesting one at that. Our reader Charlie sent a link in the comments section of this post . This website called Drivers Against Daytime Running Lights is quite clear about their opposition to potential laws. I have a default setting that causes me to be scept...

Placing responsibiliy where it counts. There's something I've been wondering about. I've noticed that the majority of traffic 'safety' campaigns seem to focus on everything except the bull in the china shop - the automobile. It's a global tendency, stemming from the seemingly irreversible prescence of cars and trucks. I find it odd that so few campaigns actually place the focus firmly on the problem: the large, heavy, dangerous machines that rumble about our streets and the people who seem to have difficultly controlling them. The billboard prototype above is a logical illustration of how traffic safety campaigns should be focused. In Frederiksberg , the city in which I live - not surprisingly it is staunchly conservative/right wing - these posters were slapped up recently. It rhymes in Danish, but reads "She checked her text messages, and died in the process." What a stupid girl. Cars are everywhere and they're not going anywhere anytime s...

It is with absolute enthusiasm that I can highly recommend the book - Traffic - Why We Drive the Way We Do (and what it says about us) by Tom Vanderbilt. Carlton Reid over at Quickrelease.tv recommended it and I promptly ordered it from Amazon. I'm glad I did. It may not have been the author's intention, but I'm left with the sense that this is the greatest bicycle advocacy book ever written . It's all about cars and how motor vechicles affect those who drive them - or those who walk/ride next to them. Filled with references to countless studies and research, Traffic will make you think differently the next time you hop into a car. It also helps cyclists and pedestrian understand the intricate happenings in the heads of motorists. I've had a driving licence for about 25 years and enjoy driving. I don't do much of it now that I live in Copenhagen but on every single page of the book I found myself muttering an inner 'wow' or 'hmm'. So many peopl...