The Life-Sized City Blog

My son is no longer at risk of being labelled a criminal! This slipped under my radar while I was out travelling - ironically out promoting cycling positively . A Danish political party - The Socialist People's Party proposed a bike helmet law for children under 12. And right here in the world's safest cycling nation where it has never been so safe to cycle. I posted about this party's position previously here on Copenhagenize.com and their four Safety Fetishists; Pia Olsen Dyhr , Anne Baastrup , Karina Lorentzen Dehnhardt and Ole Sohn [with Morten Østergaard from Radikale Venstre providing extra Orwellian Newspeak]- put the law proposal through the political machinery, ending with a vote on May 28th, 2009. The Socialist People's Party, together with a small party called Radikale Venstre [they're probably just happy someone asked them out to play] voted For and the rest of the Folketing [Danish Parliament] voted soundly Against. For: 21 Against: 90 Abstained: ...

This is one of the most important books about cycling I've ever read. Like another important book about cycling - Traffic - Why We Drive the Way We Do (and what it says about us) which I reviewed a while back - Culture of Fear Revisited isn't even about bicycles or cycling. The book, by Frank Furedi , Professor of Sociology at the University of Kent, is a blunt, fascinating and alarming book about how The Culture of Fear has overrun our societies. It maps out the evolution of this fear culture, enabling us to see how on earth we ended up where we are today. “What we have is a more promiscuous, pluralistic form of fearing. The very important implication to this is that while my parents feared together, you and I have a more isolated, private experience. We fear on our own.” I have an earlier post about how Denmark risks developing a culture of fear , but reading Furedi's book was an eye-opener. Now I'm crap at book reviews - I read two books a week but I've never b...

Last November I blogged about The World's First Fixie Cargo Bike - my Coolville Bullitt by Larry vs Harry . Some photos dropped into the inbox this morning from Andreas in Stockholm. After reading about the bike on Copenhagenize.com, he decided that he simply must own it. So he hopped on the X2000 express train to Copenhagen and bought it. There was little argument. He was itching for it. Finally I get to see my baby in the Swedish capital, where Andreas is a bike messenger. Thanks for the photos, Andreas, you madman! :-) Andreas also participated in the 14th European Cycle Messenger Championships 2009 and came in 5th on his Bullitt in the cargo bike race. Here's a little film from the ECMC 09 with focus on the cargo bike category. Damn, I wish I could have been there.

Copenhageners line up on City Hall Square to get an RFID chip installed on their bicycles. The City of Copenhagen has just launched an innovative program aimed at tracking down stolen bicycles. The program is called "Få en lille chip på" or "Get a little chip on" and involves handing out 5000 free RFID chips that Copenhageners can put on their bicycles in order to participate in the pilot program that will run until May 2010. Here's a little film made about the first chip-handing-out event. Roughly 18,000 bicycles are stolen in Copenhagen each year [there are 1.9 million bicycles in Greater Copenhagen]. Many of them end up taking up space on the sidewalks and bike racks. The City wants to be able to track them down for you but also be able to keep the sidewalks and bike racks clear of bicycles that aren't being used. On June 4th, Copenhageners could show up on the City Hall Square [pictured] to get a chip installed and so many showed up that many ended going...

In a perfect world, an individual who chooses to promote everyday cycling, and who has dedicated a great deal of time, energy and personal resources to do so, would be set high atop a pedestral to be respected by the local and global community. Instead, Matthew Modine, actor and founder of Bicycle for a Day , is subject to a cyber witchhunt these days. Instead of focusing on the good this guy is doing, all the focus is on his personal choice of whether he wishes to wear a helmet or not. Which he doesn't. Ironically, the man is more well-informed about helmets than the pundits who seek to hunt him down. It started in an interview by Tim Murphy in New York Magazine , which was picked up by Ecorazzi and then Treehugger. The witchhunt was off to a cracking start in NY Mag with the title: 154 Minutes With Matthew Modine - The actor and activist wants to make the world a greener place. But why won’t he wear the helmet his wife bought him? Already right there we're not talking about ...

I recieved an email from Aaron regarding new rules for bicycles in South Australia. On the Bicycle Victoria website there is this article : Rules threaten cargo bikes 21 May 2009. Road rules controlling bikes in South Australia appear to ban cargo bikes and any other bike wider than 700 millimetres. In South Australia right now size matters when it comes to bikes. A Bicycle Victoria member Dan Kortschak noticed these sentences from the official South Australia publication “ Cycling and the Law ” [opens as a .pdf]: “The overall width of any equipment or load carried on a bicycle must not exceed 700 millimetres” “The handlebars must be... no more than 700 millimetres wide.” This means that many styles of bicycle of increasing popularity such as cargo bikes and cruisers with wide handlebars could be seen as illegal for use on South Australian roads. I wondered how these rules compare with the Danish traffic regulation concerning bicycles. Perhaps Bicycle Victoria can use them in their ...

Here's a campaign from South Africa. A chain of fashionable cafés - Vida e - have placed these signs on their doors. No helmets. The amusing blog 2 Oceans Vibe posted about this campaign against socially unacceptable behaviour such as wearing a bicycle helmet whilst dining. Here's a shot of the door of their Kloof Street establishment in Cape Town. 2 Ocean Vibe also has an ironic, ongoing theme where readers send in photos of other shocking examples of what they deem "socially unacceptable behaviour". Generally focusing on people wearing those helmet thingys indoors. And 2 Ocean Vibe also reports about another establishment that refuses to serve 'cyclists' in 'cyclist clothes'. "Due to numerous complaints from customers..."

My good friend Cristina was in Madrid for a weekend break last month and she heard a strange sound outside her hotel. Bell ringing. Ding ding. She was quite surprised to look out the window and see a Madrid version of the critical mass rides. It took 20 minutes to pass by. They rode at a nice, casual tempo but there were many of them. Anybody know the number of participants? The pictures speak for themselves. But here's me wondering why these kinds of rides are so popular in large European cities that have yet to re-embrace the bicycle. There is none of that agressive, sub-cultural attitude that one usually associates with the North American versions. There is more of a festival mood. My friend Hynek in Czech Republic [I'll get around to blogging about it, Hynek...:-)] says that in their version, they even changed the name from 'critical mass' to something more festival'y so as not to be associated with the negative vibes from 'over there'. I have been criti...

Cool, light and comfortable. Let's just get one thing straight right off the bat. This is a real product, produced in Australia in the 1980's by a company called Davies, Craig . And I'm so pleased to know it exists. Chris from the CTC - Cycle Touring Club - which is Great Britain's cyclist advocacy group with 130ish years behind it, has this helmet in their offices and my mate Chris was kind enough to send me photos of it. I can't describe the calm that has now settled over my soul now that I know true safety exists. The box reads: "You have made a sound decision to purchase your Davies, Craig Motoring Helmet. Wear it and don’t feel self-conscious. Driving even for the most proficient is dangerous. Ultimately, motoring helmets will be commonplace, but in the meantime, you will be a leader whilst those who may consider your good sense misplaced, will follow." Finally, with the quality Motoring Helmet, we can now begin active advocating of helm...

One of life's necessary evils is a trip to Cheaptown - aka IKEA. Like everywhere else on the planet, IKEAs in Copenhagen are located in big box areas outside of the city. There are two within 10 km of our flat and I headed out to one of them to buy some boxes for my son's room. He has 15 kg of LEGO and when we redid his room we figured some stackable shoe boxes on the wall would be great for the LEGO. If we need some bigger things from IKEA, we will usually grab a car from our car share programme . But on a Saturday morning I hopped on the Bullitt cargo bike and headed off to get the boy his boxes. As you've probably gathered by now, there are separated bike lanes basically anywhere you want to go in Copenhagen. Even places you DON'T want to go, like IKEA. Here's a little photo series of my Tour de IKEA 2009. In the above photo an onramp leads to one of the main motorways into/out of Copenhagen. The bike lane I'm on continues down under the ramp, while the cars...