The Life-Sized City Blog

I've been spending a great deal of time thinking about how we can promote cycling positively instead of attempting to scare people. I was extremely pleased to see these posters all over Copenhagen a couple of weeks ago. This "Hej Cyklist" campaign [Hi, cyclist!] was an idea we came up with at Copenhagenize Consulting a couple of months ago. Hej Cyklist features on the city's bicycle railings/footrests. The idea was quite simple. A behavioural campaign and a communications template with which Copenhagen's Bicycle Office coulc communicate with the cycling citizens. The average Copenhagener who rides to work or school each day doesn't really pay much attention to bicycle infrastructure or even bicycles. They just ride. We all have a sense of pride about the city in which we live. Here in Copenhagen we love to hear that we've been voted the world's most liveable city and things like that. I figured that our cycling citizens should be made aware ...

Had a conversation with a friend, Joel, about what would happen if we marketed cycling like we market cars. Sure, many car adverts show the vehicle driving crazy in rough terrain, making you feel like the Marlboro Man with a driving licence, but many appeal to regular people and portray the car like a desirable part of your life. The now-famous series of Renault Clio adverts from the 1990's featuring 'Nicole' and 'Papa' - one of them is featured above - portray the Clio as perfect for a handsome dad AND an attractive young woman. It's a lifestyle accessory used for transport. You could easily put Nicole on a gorgeous Batavus or Velorbis instead, portraying cycling as a normal part of everyday life. In Renault's more recent campaign for the Clio the car could also easily be replaced with upmarket bike brands. It doesn't take a lot of imagination to see it. And it wouldn't be unappropriate to use the inherent flirting undertones since cycling, in Europ...

Last week I had the pleasure of hosting 13 visitors from Portland, Oregan, USA. Foreign visitors are always lovely but this group were far from tourists. All of them were here for a single purpose: to survey and study our bike culture with the aim of gaining knowledge and inspiration for Portland. It wasn't just any ragtag group of Portlanders. It was an impressive army of dedicated and eager Portlanders. A city councilor. The Director of Portland Parks and Recreation. A county commissioner. A senior advisor to the President of the Portland Metro Council. A doctor. A professor in urban planning. The executive director of the Bicycle Transportation Alliance - an advocacy group. Portland's City Traffic Engineer. An architect. A bicycle advocate. A manager of the planning, parks and trails development division. A corporate giving manager for a sportswear company. The owner of Portland's largest chain of bike shops . I find it amazing and impressive that such a group made the ...

A street around the corner from me in Frederiksberg is being converted from painted bike lanes to separated bike lanes, with a kerb/curb. I ride on this stretch almost every day and I've never felt like the stretch needed a physically separated lane, but I'm certainly pleased it is soon finished. You can see in the photos how they place a kerb towards the street - we use long blocks of stone - and then the gap is filled in with asphalt to complete the safe, separated cyclo-deliciousness. This is a sign straddle the bike lane at the top of the street reading "The building of cycle lanes will be completed November 2008." In the new suburb of Ørestad - as with all new development - building bike lanes is a requirement. There are also separated lanes along the main road through the suburb, but here you also get a quieter route if you wish to use it.

'Load On, Load Off' sounds like something Mr Miyagi would instruct Daniel to do in The Karate Kid. In this case it is the new loading areas along the street Nørrebrogade . The one that is now in the process of being transformed to a more liveable space, closed off to cars and with bus zones and wider bike lanes. We posted about the bus zones with their cool, graphic red dots . Since there is no stopping for vehicles along certain stretches, there are loading areas established on side streets for trucks who are delivering goods to shops. Again, cool and untraditional graphic design is in play. The signage is so new you can still see the chalk marks. I think it looks smashing. Thank you, Mr Bondam.

We have previously written about The Green Wave for cyclists that started on Nørrebrogade street last year. The idea, in summary, is that if you cycle 20 km/h you'll hit green lights the whole way into the city centre. The 35,000 cyclists on Nørrebrogade have taken the wave to heart. The average speed on the stretch - and in Copenhagen in general - was 15.5 km/h. It is now 20.3 km/h where the Green Wave carries the cycling crowds. There are safety advantages in play, as well as general convenience. Cyclists who raced along the route at higher speeds have lowered their pace in order to catch all the lights. Good for safety. The Green Wave has proved to be such a massive success that it has now been extended to two other main stretches leading to the city centre. The Green Wave will carry 18,000 cyclists a day on Østerbrogade and 17,000 on Amagerbrogade. The traffic lights are coordinated during the morning rush hour between 06:00 - 10:00/12:00 [depending on the route] and then the ...

Ladies and Gentleman. Live from Copenhagen. It's the inaugural Copenhagenize Bicycle Battle. In the Blue Corner: Origin unknown but we're guessing North America. The Bitchcruiser. Marrying, at long last, unnaturally high testosterone levels, a misogynist world-view and good old-fashioned sexism with... The Bicycle. In the Pink Corner: From Helsinki, Finland. The Giant Vulva Bicycle Taxi, created by the artist [pictured] Mimosa Pale, who feels the world is too penis-centric. She calles it a Mobile Female Monument. You just crawl inside and are cycled around the city. You get to feel like the star of a film by Pedro Almodovar. Put some windows in it and the title would be 'A Womb With a View'. So... here's the question. If you HAD to ride down the main street of your town or city on one of these - let's assume you had to ride the bike pulling the vagina and not hidden inside... too easy - which one would you choose?

One of the most talked about intiatives in Copenhagen is now underway. Nørrebrogade is a main street running through a densely populated neighbourhood and it has had problems thriving for many years. Many of the side streets are lovely, cosy shopping streets but the main drag is dreary. It is the busiest bike stretch in the nation, with 30,000 cyclists each day. 10,000 cars a day make their way down the street towards the city centre, despite the fact that only about 35% of the locals own cars. Vice-Mayor Klaus Bondam secured a majority at City Hall for a radical project. Closing off the street to cars. It was meant to be a permanent project but he had to compromise and make it a 'test' for a period of three months. Here's a previous post about, after it was announced . This is also the stretch that features the Green Wave - cycle 20 km/h and hit green lights all the way. Anyway, the work has begun. I got a text message the other day from a friend who uses the route. He sa...

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...

I don't wish to suggest that the cyclist above is a recent immigrant. She is probably born and raised here and can speak better Danish than me. The photo is for illustration only. Immigrants from an OECD country who move to Denmark face cultural and linguistic challenges, just as they would moving anywhere else. An Australian or a Spaniard moving here will have to adjust to the mentality of the Danes and try to learn the unintelligible language. For immigrants from other regions the challenges are often greater due to vastly diffent cultural norms. While an Australian or a Spaniard, as a rule, have probably learned to ride a bicycle in their childhood, many new arrivals from Arab countries or Africa have not. We've had many bicycle courses for immigrants over the years and learning to ride a bicycle is a great way to integrate in Danish society. You'll get up close and personal with your new fellow citizens on the bike lanes but you'll also be given the freedom of movem...