It’s about time to get out of the winter lair… I’ve had a way to long break, but now I’m finally settled in Oslo, and trying to get back on track, which seems to be harder than I thought. The winter has been snowy and colder than usual (this early in the wintertime), and all respect to those few I saw biking despite minus 20 earlier this month.
Yes, people do bicycle, and several norwegian newspapers report that the amount of year-round cyclists increase. Now even “normal” people hit the snowy streets. Well, they have to be somewhat tough to do so, and I admit I’m not one of them… Maybe it’s because of the lack of proper gear, but another issue is the bad snow shoveling of bicycle lanes in the city. The few lanes that actually exist usually serve as disposal for snow, or even car parking, and lack of space makes people insecure. To get more people to concider winter cycling, the streets must be cleared, and not only in favor of the cars…
I’m now spending my last days in Copenhagen before returning to the not so bicycle friendly city of Oslo. So it suits with this old travel video from 1937 (“Copenhagen – a FitzPatrick Traveltalk”). Look at the traffic – the bicycles, the tram, the walking people and the few cars. It seems like they all float together, though with a helping hand from the constable. An obvious change in the city image today is the absence of a tram, increase in amount of cars and the bicycle lanes and traffic lights, but the amount of bicyclists is still large. They’re everywhere, and you can still see people cycling with furniture in Copenhagen…
As probably many have noticed, yesterday was the huge climate demonstration in Copenhagen. As I passed by Charlottenborg square on my way to the library (yes someone still have some school to do), a large group of people had already gathered, and as I stood there more and more joined in. It’s so far the largest demonstration ever held on danish ground, and the newspaper Politiken says there were 100.000 people walking towards Bella Center.
This quite strange and morbid little movie was made to encourage bicycle safety in 1963. It speaks for itself I’d say… and it’s definitely worth a watch. Enjoy!
One got fat (USA, 1963)
- by Edward Everett Horton Keep reading →
Copenhagen is about to get a new Bike Sharing system (finally), and of course the ambitions where high for the new system that will brand the world’s leading bicycle city. Therefore they set out an international competition to get the most modern and intelligent system. And it looks like they’ve got it. Yesterday the winners were announced, and here are the two first prices. I must admit OPENbike looks most appealing in my eyes, but as long as they’re more comfortable than the existing ones, we should be happy…. Keep reading →
Just to mention, for those of you in Copenhagen these days; now you can win this beauty of a bicycle from Velobris. Go to Copenhagen Cycle Chic, enter 25 words, and maybe you’ll be the lucky one bringing some Danish chicness to your hometown.
Here’s another reason why Danes would win the “bicycle culture-competition”. Their bicycle culture reflects in all kinds of media, and making songs about bicycling seems like the most natural thing to do. Or at least in earlier times…
These videos are both in danish, but the last one might be nice to watch even for non-Scandinavians…
This first one is with Povl Kjøller, which made children songs in the 70’s. This way he helped making the bicycle a natural part of many Danes’ childhood and education.
This one is from Poul Henningsens much debated Denmark-movie from 1935.
The climate meeting COP15 in Copenhagen has started today, and the city is full of people concerned with climate issues on all scales. The conference arena in Bella Centre is packed with delegates from all over the world, (and as the news said today, there was not enough space for the huge interest), a boat from Greenpeace arrived a couple of days ago, and thousands of activists, researches and other interested people from all over the world are gathering throughout the city to, in many different ways, take part of the 1,5 week long conference.
What is to be said and decided in these Climate Change meetings is uncertain and vague for me. They’ll probably not solve one single climate problem in Bella Centre (and anyhow it seems inaccessible in many ways to most people), but one already apparent result is the grand attention towards climate issues in all kinds of fora. Wherever you walk in Copenhagen you’ll either hear, see or feel there is something going on, and there are many ways to approach and participate the climate debate these days…
One opportunity is to go to Christiania, where they every single day have a “Climate Bottom Meeting” which will serve as an alternative view on the climate issue, and how we all can change the world. You’ll find the whole program on this page, but I will highlight two days which seems interesting for city planners and/or bicycle enthusiasts :)
Sunday 13th - Ecological Construction and Urban Renewal from Below Focus on sustainable building/architecture and urban change.
Monday 14th – Sustainable Energy – The Ecological Footprint Focus on new forms of energy, and how to get to the CO2-neutral society. I will definitely try to attend the part of this meeting concerning bicycles…
Transport
Moderator: Jane Kruse, Danish People’s Center.
14.20-14.40 Christoffer Lux and Anders RosenqvistEnergy-Bike and its successful storyAlso demonstration of the bike by children from Christiania15.00-15.15 Per Jørgensen Møller, Engeneer & President of the Danish Committee for Electric CarsThe cars of the future15.20-15.50 Esben Larsen & Chresten Træholt, lecturer at the Danish Technical University and students from DTUElectric cars, what then?15.55-16.15 Holger Jørgensen, Bicyclelogical InstituteThe modern Transport-structure with coupling to climate care and bicycle traffic16.20-16.30 Lars Engstrøm and Annie Lerche, Christiania BikesThe fairytale of the Christiania bikesJane Kruse outlines and introduces the hall to:16.35-16.50 Lars Barfoed (Conservative Party), transport minister ‘Future Transport System in Denmark’Mike Legarth (CP), spokeman for Christiania
A couple of weeks ago this image dumped into my inbox twice, from two different friends… It’s an article from a Norwegian newspaper telling about the top five and bottom five bicycle cities in Norway. Of course Oslo is in the bottom five. :(
It’s definitely a contributing factor that the newspapers write more and more about the issue, but there’s a long way to the top. And the Norwegian top is probably not even close to the standard of bicycle cities around the world. We need some new and greater goals, and a kick in the ass!
For the UN summit Mobilisations in Copenhagen, Climate Camp is teaming up with artactivist collective The Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination (link) to design and build a new tool of civil disobedience, to be unleashed on the RECLAIM POWER day of action on 16th December. Made from hundreds of recycled bikes, The Bike Bloc will merge device of mass transportation and pedal powered resistance machine, postcapitalist bike gang and art bike carnival.
