The Life-Sized City Blog

There was a brief piece on the news just now about how the City of Copenhagen will launch a plan on Tuesday [17th of March, 2009] that will reveal how we aim to become the world's first carbon neutral capital city by 2025. I'm looking forward to seeing the details. I'll keep you posted.

One of our readers in Geneva, Benoit, brought this new campaign from the city of Geneva to our attention. It is aimed at encouraging more people to choose 'soft' transport forms like walking and bicycling but also the bus and the tram. It is fantastic in it's simplicity. The poster above reads, roughly translated: "There is always a moment where you have to take the first step." Ahhh, l'amour... Then there is this poster, which is the payoff for the first. "By bicycle. On foot. By bus. By tram. A new step in [for] life" The slogan for the campaign is, in my interpretation: "Change is in the air!" It's a prime example of how to promote cycling positively as a normal, everyday transport option for regular citizens. Geneva, like so many other cities in Europe is seeing an increase in the number of cyclists. The metropolitan area hosts 812,000 citizens and since 2005 the number of people cycling has increased by 11% in the summer and 28% in...

It is a constant and eternal hope for citizens of any nation that their politicians are fair, well-researched, thorough and rational. By and large, Danish democracy is refreshingly transparent. You can always come in direct contact with most MPs and corruption is non-existent. Politicians are accessible and with most of them you get the sense that they could be your neighbour. I've always felt that the down-to-earth feeling is a main reason that Danes take democracy so seriously. In national elections, over 80% vote and you can strike up engaging discussions with most people about politics. On occasion, mistakes are made. We're all homo sapiens after all. I was quite suprised to read that a member of parliament for one of the larger parties, Socialistisk Folkeparti [Socialist People's Party] actually proposed a helmet law for under 15's at a recent town hall traffic meeting . The member of parliament for the Socialist People's Party in question was one Anne Baastru...

The City of Copenhagen's Bicycle Office rigged up this truck and parked it on City Hall Square in association with a conference about heavy traffic. It reads: Hi Cyclist! Try out a truck and see yourself from a new angle! Nice simple message. No need for fearmongering texts. We all understand the dangers of what the Americans call "right hooks". Even though cyclists heading straight on have the right of way over turning vehicles, it really is important to understand what it looks like from the cab of such a big truck. With the hysterical and unscientific helmet promotion currently insulting the intelligence of the nation, it's extra important to underline that helmets won't help when you're hit by a vehicle. Therefore, highlighting vigilance and awareness while cycling is not a bad idea. Getting the trucks out of the city is a better idea and the Copenhagen government has proposed just this but the national government refuses. The use of the "Hej Cyklist...

Forty years of working hard to create the World's Cycling Capital and, it seems, we're throwing it all away. All over the world the bicycle is booming. Sales are up in the most unusual places after 'The Summer of the Bicycle', the oil crisis and the global economic meltdown in 2008. Even in Holland, where everyone owns a bike already, many companies are reporting increases in sales. Some of the larger companies are up 15%. If we look at Denmark, the numbers for bicycle sales in 2007 are not reassuring. According to the industry organisation for bike retailers - Danske Cykelhandlere - the numbers are expected to be down 5%. When I spoke with them the man tried to brush off the negative numbers by saying that Denmark has had a few years with high sales increases so a fall wasn't a problem. However, many other countries have experienced increases over the past few years, too, so there goes that theory. When pressed about bike helmets, he quoted word for word th...

Some of you may recall that Copenhagenize/ Copenhagen Cycle Chic were the proud recipients of one of Yahoo!'s Purple Pedal bikes last year. The bikes are equipped with a mobile phone with a camera, which is run off a solar panelled box on the back. It takes a photo every minute when active and instantly transports it back to a Flickr website and the Purple Pedals website, complete with geotag. When the bike is stationary for three minutes, it goes to 'sleep' and will awake once again when it is put into motion. All quite flash. All went well for a good while. I rode it around, for example, when the Portland crew came to Copenhagen on a study trip last fall. Here's a photo series taken by the bike's camera . After that there were some technical difficulties involving... well... technical stuff. I'm pleased to say that the bike is up and running again and, after a week in Copenhagen, the bike is now in Tanzania! My friends at Baisikeli, the development org that ...

I am so totally crap at covering the bicycle infrastructure in provincial Denmark quite simply because I rarely get out there. The opportunity arose a week ago when we motored out to the country in our car share car , to spend some time with all the kids and parents in my son's school class. Just as in Holland and many regions of other European countries, there are bike lanes pretty much everywhere. They vary in style and placement, depending on the amount of traffic they get. If you're really out in the boondocks, you may be stuck for separated lanes, but between most towns there are either lanes on each side of the road or, like in the photo above, a two-lane bike lane running parallel to the road. This bike lane runs between two towns. One with a population of 4000 and the other, 15,000. It is a part of the regional and national bike lane network. Roughly 10,000 kilometres in all. The respective county is responsible for upkeep of the lanes in its area. Such lanes are primar...

Thanks to BlackSeaFleet for the link to this great shot. A hunter cycling home with his quarry. It's from the strange Fail blog , who seem to think this is strange, but it gets a Copenhagenize thumbs up for innovation and balls.

A little spot of winterliciousness from Austria, as photographed by ' Anuwintschalek ' on Flickr. Perhaps her Triobike is parked nearby. With the record cold snap chilling most of Europe , it's nice to see how cyclists across the Continent either just get on with it or find unique ways to adapt. Nice to see he is riding a normal bike and I love the mirrors. You never know who's skating up behind you.

Typical Copenhagen. Someone needs to reserve this stretch of parking spots. For whatever reason, be it the arrival of a moving van or a temporary container. Who knows. They used the traditional tape and orange pylons but this is often hardly a deterrent for motorists. I've tried this before and all too often a motorist will disregard your attempt to reserve the spot. Finding parking is difficult in the centre of Copenhagen. It's frightfully expensive and the City removes 2-3% of all parking street-level parking each year, using the space for bicycle infrastructure or public spaces in general, be it trees, benches, what have you. The solution above is simple. Mark off the space you need to reserve and then use some of those bicycles leaning against a building nearby, laying them down ever so nice. A motorist may nudge a pylon out of the way but they will hardly hop out of their car to move a bicycle. Case closed. Problem solved. Copenhagen style.