40 years ago Copenhagen was just as car-clogged as anywhere else
 

I know Copenhagen shares many things with other cities... but wondering if you could help me itemize what we could borrow to improve our use of bicycles in transportation.

Copenhagenize.com - Bicycle Culture by Design: The World's Most Bicycle Friendly Cities - from Copenhagenize.com

PS... that copenhagenize site is wonderful. Thank you Mikeal Colleville-Andersen.

"To bike or not to bike: that is the question."
- Hamlet, prince of Denmark (slight revision)

Better Government?

Aaron :)

Which IMO is based on better citizen participation, especially on a municipal level.

Am I misquoting Jane Jacobs? She seemed to think that the real power and the great ideas were coming from city governments. My opinion is if you work steadfastly in a direction, things will evolve... probably for the better. Copenhagen is in a different timezone, but there's not a whole lot of extra magic going on there. They started earlier than North America, worked through lots of problems and continue to evolve.

I went to a local community meeting recently with regard to renovation of a public housing area. I asked about the fate of the road, which is a one-way street with parallel parking and trees growing from just outside the curb to shade the sidewalk and road with canopy. I was told that it would stay the same or widen only slightly because they are going to change the road from one-way to two-way (which of course will make it impossible to keep the trees unless they remove the on-street parking, which I hope is there plan because they said they planned to save the trees). Anyway, the point is that one resident said she favored changing the road from one-way to two-way because, she claimed, kids only looked one way before crossing and if someone was going the wrong way, which she said happens often, they would get hit whereas if they are used to looking both ways, they will see oncoming traffic and wait to cross.

Maybe there's some merit in this but maybe it's also just an excuse to advocate two-way traffic for driving convenience. Either way, there's going to be more parking and driving with two-way roads and more residents. Moral of the story: citizen participation can result in pro-driving reforms, even in a neighborhood setting with many children playing outside, narrow, shaded one-way streets, etc. It all depends on the mentality of the citizens participating.

I totally agree, and even posted recently that I think mayors are or will be the heroes of this age. But citizen participation is key whether in Copenhagen or Paducah, as in going to city meetings to tell the planners and politicians where you need bike lanes and what type you think is best.

I live in Boston and ten years ago we were one of the worst biking cities in the country. Now, we've had a dramatic turnaround. Rumor was someone gave the late Mayor Menino a bike as a gift.... Anyway, turnaround is possible and as it starts to snowball, there are more bicyclists pushing for more changes!