The Life-Sized City Blog

For all of Copenhagen's badassness as a bicycle city, there remains one thing that the City still completely sucks at. Bicycle parking at train stations. At Copenhagen Central Station there are only about 1000 bike parking spots. Danish State Railways can't even tell us how many spots they have. They're not sure. Even in Basel they have 800+. In Antwerp they have this . Don't even get me started on the Dutch. 12,500 bike parking spots are on the way in some place called Utrecht . Amsterdam has a multi-story bike parking facility, floating bicycle barges round the back and are planning 7000 more spots underwater . Even at the nation's busiest train station, Nørreport, the recent and fancy redesign failed miserably in providing parking that is adequate for the demand . Architects once again failing to respond to actual urban needs. It is time to remedy that. Here is my design for 7550 bike parking spots behind Copenhagen Central Station. Steve C. Montebello i...

Copenhagenize Design Company was pleased to have been invited across the Øresund to the grand opening of the City of Malmö's brand new Bike&Ride parking facility at the central station. On a sunny morning, the ceremonial ribbon - strung between two cargo bikes - was cut. Malmö is Sweden's leading bicycle city - so much so that it features in the Top 20 on The Copenhagenize Index of Bicycle Friendly Cities . It is a premier bicycle city with around 30% of the population using bicycles each day to go to work or education. This brand-new Bike&Ride facility will host more than 1,500 bikes and there are even - be still our hearts - dedicated spaces for cargo bikes. There are loads of details; two air pumps, a bike shop, lockers, numerous screens showing train departure and arrival times, restrooms, a lounge if you have to wait for the train. There is even a single shower for the odd "cyclist" who might fancy a spandex ride. Generally, the facility is geared towar...

On my recent trip to Zurich to speak at TEDxZurich I was arranging an interview with a journalist for the Swiss paper Tages Anzeiger . I had heard about the motorway tunnel built 20 years ago under the Central Station and asked him if we could visit it. He arranged it and, after a bicycle ride around the city to assess - and mock - the state of the city's bicycle culture, we headed underground, accompanied by two gents from Swiss railways. The tunnel isn't long. It was built two decades ago during the construction of the Museumstrasse line station. It wasn't even intended for immediate use. The plan was that it would eventually be used to connect the A3 and A1 - Allmend Brunau and Neugut motorway junction. I wanted to see the tunnel for two reasons. Firstly, it's just cool to see motorways and tunnels like this that have never been used. Never putrified with exhaust, its walls never shaken incessently by automobile traffic. I also wanted to visit it because I he...

Here's a brief reportage from a short R&R trip I made to Sweden earlier this week. The details of which you can read over at Cycle Chic - great getaway hotel if you're in Copenhagen or Sweden or are cycling touring in the Skåne area. I took the Øresunds train from Copenhagen Central to Bromölla and from there it was a 7 km ride to the design hotel on the coast. I've written previously about even small towns in Sweden have excellent cycle tracks and even keep them cleared of snow in the winter . I've also briefly covered infrastructure between small towns in Denmark as well as the infrastructure connecting cities all over the land . While Denmark features over 10,000 km of national bicycle infrastructure connecting much of the nation , it is worth highlighting that Southern Sweden does just fine as well. The trains all have roomy bicycle compartments and I always get a kick out of the seatbelts for bicycles that are provided. My Crescent bicycle from 19...

The area surrounding the nation's busiest train station, Nørreport, is a labyrinth of construction as the City is renovating the on-street facilities and making it a nicer place. The result is that there is less space available so the City of Copenhagen has these signs up on Købmagergade, near the station. We are always thrilled to Copenhagenize Consulting's "Hej Cyklist" behavourial communication template in use. This campaign was developed for the City by the consultancy Atkins Danmark . It reads: Hej Cyclist! Can't you find your bicycle? It's now parked in Rosenborggade. In order to create space for everyone, we've drawn a bicycle parking zone here on Købmagergade. Bicycles parked outside the zone may be moved to the bicycle parking zone in Rosenborggade. They include a little map so you can find your bicycle. How lovely. Around the corner, here are the bicycles that have been moved. A cool design of the photo that combines the bicycles on th...

You'd be excused for not having a clue what you're looking at right now. Innovation sometimes goes wrong, but at least the thought was a good, noble one. Bicycle racks outside Hedehusene Station, west of Copenhagen. I know about them and have seen them from the train to Roskilde countless times. There aren't many places that still have these bicycle racks anymore so when I rode to Roskilde for christmas (previous post) I stopped to take some photos. A rather overcomplicated attempt to provide covered parking for bicycles to protect them from the rain. I've never actually seen them in use, so I was suprised to see that four or five bicycles were parked underneath the plastic fantastic contraptions. A good idea that never fit in with the Danish desire for ease-of-use and convenience. If anyone knows when these racks were developed, please let us know in the comments.

Couldn't help myself. I was lingering like a bad smell at the Nørreport train station last Saturday, waiting for a friend and I took some photos of more example of bike seat rain covers, as I wrote about the other day . Nørreport is the country's busiest train station and the bicycle parking around it testifies to that. I only covered a fraction of the bicycle parking and still managed to find a number of example of rain covers. Copenhagen University, a purchased rain cover, Alinea teaching material for schools. Swedish rail advert, Information/Danish newspaper Some of the seat covers are exotic. These two are from Sweden. The orange one is an example of the campaign that started this wave of bicycle seat rain cover coverage in the first place.