The Life-Sized City Blog

Row of new bikes for sale outside a local bike shop in Copenhagen. As one might expect in a cycling nation, bike sales are healthy. According to the Danish bicycle industry, the good people of Denmark bought 500,000 new bikes in 2006. Not bad for a country of 5.3 million people. It appears to be new record. We here at Copenhagen Bike Culture Blog are guessing that the number will increase in 2007 since we seem to be seeing a lot of new bikes on the streets. The average price of a bike in Denmark in 2006 is 2900 kroner [€386 / $580], which is up from 2500 kroner in 2005. The increase in sales causes a boom for bike workshops, too. While Danes [along with the Dutch] cycle more than any other nation - 1000 km a year per capita - most people can't be bothered repairing their bikes themselves. Whether it is a flat tyre or a rusty chain, Danes prefer dropping them off at a local bike shop. The result is a shortage of bike mechanics in the Danish kingdom. It is estimated that 100 bike me...

15 accidents per year in Copenhagen's most dangerous intersection has been reduced to just one. The results are quite concrete after Copenhagen City redesigned the intersection at Gyldenloevsgade and Soegade by The Lakes in inner Copenhagen a year ago. In Copenhagen, many intersections have both traffic lights for cars and separate ones for bikes . The solution was coordinating the bike traffic lights to change to green a couple of seconds before the cars. A simple solution. It is worth noting that the intersection is a major cycle artery for bike commuters. Over 25,000 cyclists a day on weekdays cross the intersection. If you calculate that there are 260 weekdays in a year, that means that 6,500,000 million bikes cross the intersection annually. With that in mind, 15 serious accidents is not a bad statistic. Reducing that to one is spectacular. The intersection in question: Via: DR P4

Actually, I was at a Christmas lunch at Danish Broadcasting Corp. and was rather occupied with the consumption of food and drink when I bumped into Ole in one of the exterior atriums at the broadcaster's headquarters . It's a massive party involving over 2500 people and Ole was invited in to sell espresso coffee to the masses. What a cool bike. Just when you think you've seen everything in Copenhagen, something like this shows up. I had a good chat with Ole, the mastermind behind the concept. All of his coffee-making gear can fit inside the cargo bike and he doesn't need electricity to run the show. It's all run on natural gas. He tells me he spent ages finding the right gear and, most importantly, the right bike. With Denmark being the home of the cargo bike there were several makes to consider. He narrowed it down to three: the Nihola , the Christiania bike and the Black Iron Horse [ Sorte Jernhest in Danish.] The choice fell on the latter, as it can handle 150 ...

The fact that cycling is healthy is not a newsflash. However, as we highlighted in a previous post over at Copenhagen Cycle Chic , about why this city rides bikes so much, the majority of Copenhageners don't ride primarily to save the world or because they're health fanatics. According to the study: 54% ride because it is easy and fast . 19% ride because of the benefits of excercising. 7% ride because it is cheap. 6% ride because it is handy. 1% ride because of the environmental benefits. Nevertheless, the Copenhagen City Council - in their Biannual Cycle Report - had the consultancy company Trafitec rate the societal and health aspects of our bicycle culture. While these figures are specific to Copenhagen, based on our current levels of health and welfare, the results and stats are interesting nonetheless. Just the facts: - Physically active people live ca. 5 years longer than the physically inactive. - Physically inactive persons suffer on average for four more years from len...

If you're lucky, you, too, can ride around safely after dark thanks to millions of salmon sperm. Recent research has shown that a thin layer of DNA from salmon sperm has such fine optical qualities that it increases the strength and effectiveness of light diodes by holding onto the electrons longer than synthetic materials. It's a chappie named Andrew Steckl, one of the world's leading light diode experts and professor of light learning at Cincinnati University who has figured it all out. Namely that thin layers of our hereditary material was better at blocking electrons than conventional materials like silicium. "DNA contains certain optical, magnetic and structural qualities that make it unique. It makes it possible to improve the effectiveness, the strength of the light and the clarity...", Steckl said in a press release from the university. Okay, via a Danish article from which we shamlessly translated this whole piece... but anyway... The two light diodes on...

The City of Copenhagen's biannual Cycle Report [the link is to a pdf and it's in Danish] is a goldmine of great statistics regarding our bicycle culture. Even though our bike infrastructure is highly-advanced, the City is constantly revising and reviewing all the issues regarding integration of bikes in the streets. It is an ongoing, long-term affair. Bikes have equal access everywhere in the city, but there are as a rule dedicated bike lanes on most roads with traffic. When Copenhagen builds new bike lanes on a stretch of road, there is a bicycle traffic increase of 20% and a 10% decrease in car traffic. Bike lanes subsequently increase cyclists' safety and perception of safety, encouraging them to ride more. The flipside of this is that there is a tendency for more accidents at intersections. The use of blue painted bike lanes across intersections is on the rise, as they help cyclists and motorists see the bike lanes. Having one blue painted strip of bike lane leading ...

It has come to our attention that in some cities, there is resistance from the community - namely commerce - towards such things as bike lanes and bike infrastructure in general. We see it from time to time in Copenhagen, too. Back in the 1960's, a radical idea was born. Pedestrianising the city centre. There was very vocal resistance from the shops. There were even cries of " we're not Italians! We don't want to walk around the town! " The car was king. It happened anyway. The world's longest pedestrian street was born - Strøget - and others followed. Did commerce suffer? Not at all. On the contrary. Pedestrian and bicycle access without motor vechicles created the ideal shopping concept. Sales increased. It remains the case to this day, especially with the massive investment in bike infrastructure over the past 40 years, providing even more access to the city and her neighbourhoods for cyclists. Stats and Studies for use by bike advocates The ide...

"Everytime I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the human race." - H. G. Wells Let's get one thing straight. While we're not banner-waving activists, we think activism is fantastic. We're all for it, especially the activism towards creating bike culture and infrastructure like we have in Copenhagen in other cities in the world. We just feel the need to play devil's advocate regarding the Critical Mass movement. Certainly the style of Critical Mass prevalent in, for example, North American cities. Rides that feature an aggressive, in-your-face tone. There are many positive examples of protest rides that are calm, cool and accepted. Budapest comes to mind. Even the rides in Prague - where they changed the name from Critical Mass to something akin to 'bike ride' in order to remove themselves from the North American versions. Generlally, it's a brilliant concept. Democratic to the core. Celebrations, even. Even if there ar...

A classic Copenhagen bike lane with Copenhageners doing what they do best. We found a spot of statistics from Eurobarometer about how many kilometres a year citizens of EU countries ride bikes on average. There is a massive difference between top and bottom. The Netherlands.............1019 km Denmark..........................958 km Belgium............................327 km Germany.........................300 km Sweden............................300 km Finland.............................282 km Ireland.............................228 km Italy..................................168 km Austria.............................154 km Greece................................91 km France................................87 km UK......................................81 km Luxembourg....................48 km Portugal............................35 km Spain.................................24 km Here's the figures for North America: USA/Canada...................30 km Netherlands and Denmark on top... h...

So many good ideas, so little time. We were thrilled to hear about a proposed cycle tunnel in the city of Bodø, Norway . The city wishes to become a cycling city on a par with many other European cities. The main hurdle is that Bodø is located in the far north of Norway, at the mercy of North Atlantic and, worse, Arctic winds. Hurdles are, however, meant to be jumped over. This is Scandinavia, design capital of the known universe, so some clever thinkers starting jumping. Bodø has a population of 40,000 wind blown inhabitants and the idea is to build an 8 km long tube from the city centre to the College of Higher Education. Clear plastic plates would be used and openings would provide ventilation. It's all still being decided, as far as we can see, but the idea is great. Read more about it here . It reminds us of an idea for a Danish bridge - Storebæltsbroen - when it was being planned. At that time it was to be the longest bridge of it's kind in the world. Some bright minds pr...