The Life-Sized City Blog

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 ...

Right off the bat we're going to link to a recent post featuring photos of cyclists in Copenhagen in the winter . Thanks to Eleanor for the following link. So... Hot of the virtual press of the Thunder Bay News Watch : "Cyclist hit by car. Transported to hospital". (We hope he is okay). Now the comments that often accompany bicycle-related stories in the Anglo-Saxon world are often entertaining and creative - as well as healthy, shocking reminders of the extent of our deeply-rooted car culture. The ones that follow this story are hilarious. Banning cycling in winter! Here are some of the nuggets of hilarity: The Wolf says: With all the laws new and old to protect people from themselves,why have they not made it illegal to operate a bike in the winter? The roads and conditions are hard enough to navigate in the winter never mind having to keep an eye out for someone on an unstable bike. nads74 says: I disagree, about making it a law, honestly why do we ne...

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...

Photo: Finn Frandsen/Politiken The police confiscated a number of so-called 'war bikes' last night, on the eve of one of the main demonstrations during the climate conference. They raided The Candy Factory, where the bikes were being prepared for the demonstration and... well... took them away. I blogged about The Bike Bloc a couple of weeks ago and it's a shame that the bikes were taken. The police say that they are illegal bikes and may be used illegally at the demonstration. The police spokesman, when pressed, couldn't answer in any detail what he thought the bikes could or would be used for. Via Politiken [in Danish] - and this article They're Taking Our Bikes !