Og jeg cyklede hjem til københaven

The ‘nabe, Frederiksberg

Med en “lånt” cykel jeg op fra min fætter Mortens lejlighed på Nordre Fasanvej og gjort den velkendte venstre på Mariendalsvej, der ville tage mig til Centrum. Øjebliket jeg ramte fortovet, følte jeg en utrolig følelse, som jeg ikke havde følt i lang tid … jeg var konge af vejen igen. Nå, ligesom alle andre dansker. Mariendalsvej bliver til Ågade, Åboulevard, og derefter Gyldenløvesgade, og kører over vandet, indtil du begynder på HC Andersen Boulevard. Med vinden i ryggen skyde mig over vandet, var jeg overvældet. Min lille genvej er at drejer til venstre på Hammerichsgade, højre på Jarmers Plads til Sankt Peders Stræde, højre til Nørregade, og derefter venstre på Skindergade indtil jeg ankommer på Strøget. Jeg plejer at gå min cykel til springvandet hvis jeg møde nogen, spise, eller gå shopping. Som jeg parkeret nær springvandet følte jeg noget andet velkendt, helt sikkert noget, at hver New Yorker føler … at jeg var på et tidspunkt i midten af verden.

 

I had the chance to take two junkets to Copenhagen to visit my cousin this Year and had, as always, the time of my life.

Almost to the City Center

I wrote above about the borrowed bicycle waiting for me and my nostalgic, familiar trip into the City Center. Having not been back to my second home in a while, I was not only overcome with joy from being back on a bicycle in Copenhagen, but also with a sense of calm, inspired determination from being “the king of the road” on that bicycle on that road. Biking in most other cities is not quite the same, and not just because they don’t have the infrastructure. The culture of being accepted on a bicycle, let alone being possibly the most preferenced mode of transportation, is unusual, and I would argue that

Origin of the borrowed bicycle…?

infrastructure is secondary to this culture. This is what makes cycling in a city truly great (though bike lanes don’t hurt). Cycling in Copenhagen also produces perhaps the most “local” experience. Everyone cycles, so drivers, straphangers (metro users), and even walkers experience

the city in a manner largely unlike a Copenhagener. As a fake local, I rarely have any other experience than on my bicycle, but I won’t forget the few hours I spent one day walking with a friend, and how different the experience was, of such familiar places to me. I felt like a tourist, and I hated it! How very un-Danish, one might argue. On the flip-side, for some reason I also biked around Amelienborg for the first time (it seems that I’ve always walked the area), and that experience was all the more dissimilar, and very special.

 

Thinking of the distinctions in the development of cycling systems between Copenhagen and New York, the latter of which notably has been fomented by the growth of Citibike – infrastructure in NYC is paramount to this

Cycling diplomacy!

development, as we do not HAVE a cycling culture, let alone yellow cab, UberX, or suburban drivers who yield to cyclists on a given avenue (though Via drivers are mostly very polite). From the limited history of cycling in Copenhagen that I know, it was the *culture* that drove the infrastructure. In New York, we have needed and will continue to need infrastructure to give rise to such a culture, a culture of truly sharing the road. Exactly the reverse process. Thankfully, over the course of this year (nicely summed up in this older article Citi Bike to Begin Service in Queens and Expand Service in Brooklyn and Manhattan ), we began to seriously expand in the Outer Boroughs, including building 79 new stations in Brooklyn and 12 new stations in Long Island City (Queens). Having worked for the New York State Department of Transportation on highway engineering and planning in Long Island City, I can confirm that the neighborhood, exploding with commercial, retail, and residential growth, will substantially benefit from the Citibike option, particularly as

How else would one travel to the Dansk Arkitektur Center?

Manhattanites begin to commute there more and more, and vice-versa. Indeed, the Outer Boroughs are the next frontier in NYC’s cycling infrastructure expansion…though far from the final. Just as it’s a bit of a schlep to cycle to Papierun to grab dinner in Copenhagen, it’s even more difficult to get to Main Street in Flushing for the same *exotic* fare. This is quickly changing, though. By 2017 the system hopes to have 12,000 more bicycles in action all over New York City.

 

Perhaps bike sharing, as I’ve noted in earlier posts, as a “gateway drug” for cycling in the United States is morphing into a more substantive piece of infrastructure in its own right. This is obviously quite distinct from what went on in Copenhagen. More importantly, even, it is fomenting the growth of a cycling culture beyond that of the participants in the Tour de France (or Bronx, for that matter). Indeed, Brooklyn Borough President Eric L. Adams proclaimed to constituents this year that “bike riding is more than recreation…it is daily transportation for an increasing number of commuters…” affirming even in the public rhetoric the robustness of this growing culture. While I may have thought, from a (fake) Copenhagener’s perspective, that bike sharing was incapable of doing much for sharing the road, perhaps bike share programs like Citibike all over the Nation (there are hundreds…) is the most substantive answer to growing our commuter cycling culture, at least in urban areas. The road and regulatory infrastructure still needs to catch up, but if culture leads, it all won’t be far behind.

Two Vikings sailing Kattegat…no bicycles

 

 

 

Ministeriet for Venner af Cykling i Danmark i New Yorks Nytårstale

Perhaps this nytårstale should have come out yesterday, and been given by some more official person, but nevertheless. Godt nytår/Happy New Year! It goes without saying that 2014 was an unbelievable year for cycling and those whose lives it impacts in Copenhagen, New York, and cities elsewhere around the World, setting the stage for even more of a watershed year in 2015. Astonishing may be the best way to describe how cycling innovation has exploded in places other than Denmark and the Netherlands in recent years, and it seems that this growth only becomes more exponential over time. Though these few examples surely do not even begin to scratch the surface of this monumental growth, a few memorable “moments” in cycling in 2014 inspire those whose lives cycling has changed and portend an even more cathartic New Year.

Copenhagen Lighting the Way to Greener, More Efficient Cities

Lighted Bike Path in Copenhagen (photo credit: Sofie Amalie Klougart)

For Copenhageners and especially those who live in Frederiksberg, the traffic light right before one rides over Sankt Jørgens Sø, as H.C. Andersens Boulevard turns into Gyldenløvesgade, is almost ALWAYS a stop…to think that one day this could be a thing of the past! These experimental lights would completely revolutionize the cycling commute in Copenhagen and in the other cities that are experimenting with it (including San Francisco and Los Angeles, which, of course, don’t have quite as many bicycles…). Though some of this LED sensor technology would help car drivers as well, this really is another win for the cyclist, who, as one in the article did, could more easily give up the car because the bike is simply easier. And only easier will it get. Such a thing would be great for New York…if we had bike lanes in the first place…

Chileans Design a “bike that can’t be stolen”

Cristobal Cabello, one of the Chilean engineers who designed the “unstealable” bike (photo credit: Luis Henao)

As someone who has had a number (4?) of bikes stolen in Copenhagen and NYC, I’m leery of anyone who says that they’ve “invented” a theft-proof bicycle, but this smartly points out that anti-theft measures have still not really been factored into (at least significantly) most of bicycle design language. These Chilean engineering students seem to have the right idea, in that thieves must destroy the bicycle in order to steal it, rendering the act irrelevant. I do not see bicycle thievery to be stopped any time soon, though. While Denmark may express dissatisfaction with rampant bicycle theft, many young Danes rely on “discarded” bikes around town for transport. Bicycle “theft” is rather ambiguous and over-enforcement could actually disenfranchise some who might not participate as actively in the bicycle economy other than as sharers.

The Netherlands Gets the World’s First Solar-powered Bike Lane

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Though the article does not explicitly state this, I’m assuming that these “solar lanes” are being experimented with as bike lanes because of the weight distribution. This is not necessarily a cycling-specific innovation, but a shining example of the multitude of positive externalities of cycling.

Citi Bike Looks Across River to Jersey City

A cyclist about to get on the PATH train in Jersey City, NJ to NYC (photo credit: Kevin Hagen)

In the works in 2014 and to come in the New Year, in fact, may also be an expansion of New York City’s acclaimed/troubled Citi Bike program, this time into another STATE (just right next door). Jersey City has become nearly another borough of New York, with hundreds of thousands of commuters entering and leaving Manhattan daily. It remains to be seen how the two bike share systems would interact (they would be completely separate entities, though likely maintained by the same company), but an expansion would be regardless impressive. Again, bike sharing is just a “gateway drug” to commuter cycling in lieu of driving, but for us Americans (especially New Yorkers) it has been instrumental in changing the transportation fabric of our streets. With the 2014 saving-grace acquisition of Alta, the company that manages bike share systems across the Nation, by the parent company of real estate behemoth Related and gym-rat heaven Equinox, will come the continually sticky traction of the system and cementing of bike sharing in popular consciousness.

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Last, but certainly not least, my “cousin” from Denmark, Morten, took New York City by storm yet again in 2014! We got around town in very un-Danish ways…in part because my bicycle collection has become diminished…but that will soon change. I cannot wait to get back in the saddle (literally) on the mean streets of Frederiksberg when I return to CPH soon in 2015, and of course drudge up some comic fodder for my tiny audience here addressed.

Tillykke med fødselsdagen, Citibike

 

Citibike in the Meatpacking District (photo courtesy Keith Bedford)

This month Citibike turns 1 year old, and the system couldn’t be more hotly contested, following up on what I last wrote. These two articles (whose sources run the gamut in terms of journalistic reputation…ha…ha…) offer a number of suggestions for what to do, most importantly increasing the annual fee (usually for locals), adding public funding to the mix in addition to raising more private funds, and focusing marketing on the tourist and one-off day pass market.

Citibike Fixes: Experts offer suggestions for ailing system

Experts Bullish on Citibike

(Photo courtesy Getty Images, Spencer Platt)

Perhaps what has made the most news is Mayor Deblasio’s rejection of a possible increase in pricing for the annual membership as well as possible public funding for the program. Though he ran on a (naive, pretty ridiculous, pie-in-the-sky) populist/ultra-left platform, it seems strange that Mr. Deblasio wouldn’t seek any kind of public funding for Citibike. The rationale behind his hesitation to increase prices does play into his pandering to the economically disenfranchised (he doesn’t think citizens should pay a CENT more for the service), but this seems contrarian to his denial of public funds for the system.

In Copenhagen, though ill-fated the bike sharing program was successful for some time, and it absolutely relied on public funding from the outset (from the Municipality of Copenhagen) to get itself off of the ground, in addition to the kind of private funding that the public-private partnership of Citibike drew out. Mr. Deblasio is a very inexperienced official (to say the least), but if he wants to create any kind of legacy, at which he has failed since his election, it goes without saying that he should not only look to the successes of his predecessors (Mr. Bloomberg, for one…) but also to the leadership of other successful cities for inspiration. Though New York is an unusual place many thousands of miles away with a completely different history and context, it has, can, and should continue to learn from a city like Copenhagen in increasing its bicycle ridership yet another 80 some-odd percent over the next 5 years.

Newyorkerne er vilde med deres nye bycykler!

Happy Spring, everyone. I would first like to apologize for my long (now entire-Winter) hiatus. I promise that I have a great deal of content that I’ve been saving up to share and that I’m going to be back in full force this Season.

venlig hilsen,

Eric

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A few months ago a Danish friend made me aware of the following article:

Newyorkerne er vilde med deres nye bycykler

Happy Danes do Citibike (photo courtesy: poitiken.dk)

Having marked it planning on sharing it later, I’m disappointed to also share two unfortunate changes that should also be reported…though the article briefly expresses a Danish sense of pleasant surprise at the success of New York’s bicycle sharing scheme, we in NYC have recently learned that the Citibike program is sadly in financial trouble and strangely our new Mayor has rejected several influxes of capital that could save it. The understanding is that the system will continue to operate just fine and attempt to change (and increase) costs to consumers to balance its budget. Across the “pond,” Copenhagen’s own bike sharing scheme was axed by the City Government last year, for lack of funding and, seemingly, interest. The above article mentions some things that were to be implemented in Copenhagen, that were noticed in NYC, but that of course never came to fruition.

I’m not too concerned about “the future of cycling” in New York. I have and will continue to convey the positive impact that the Citibike program has had on the City and how things have already changed for the better, even over the past few years prior. What’s striking here, though, is the stark contrast in bicycle cultures between New York City and Copenhagen that produced, seemingly, the same result for bike share schemes. I’ve written previously on how bike sharing is sort of like a “gateway drug” (to make an ugly comparison); if people are introduced to urban cycling in an easy, fun way, they might increase their use of bikes around town and possibly buy one themselves to use even more. The present situation begs the question, though, as to whether or not, regardless of outcome, these schemes are sustainable, inasmuch as I think that they should be/have been propped up. In Copenhagen, a bicycle culture has existed for far longer than the bike sharing scheme. The bike share program was put in place to perhaps make it even easier for marginalized groups (even tourists!) to cycle around the City. In New York, the target demographic was more broad, with the goal being that everyone should have the chance to easily ride around and see how wonderful it is to cycle in NYC. But is it possible that they have or are beginning to exhaust their usefulness? And that this might not necessarily be a bad thing?

Of course, I cannot speak for a real Copenhagener, but I doubt many natives will mourn the loss of the bike share program that many probably knew little about. Everyone has their own bicycle in Copenhagen. I hope that New York’s Citibike program does last, though, even if only for long enough such that people are finally comfortable cycling around town. If these systems in general are not sustainable in the long-term, their impact has to be huge and immediate, which fortunately I see Citibike as having had thus far.

The many faces of Citibike

Citibike Bros, Fifth Avenue

Citibike Lovebirds, Fifth Avenue

Citibike Tourists, Park Avenue

Map of Current Citibike Stations (courtesy citibike.com)

As the Citibike program continues to take the City by storm, our biking culture has become much more diverse in its demographic, its core customer. Much as you would see a grandmother from Aalborg next to a hipster who lives in Nyhavn, now we New Yorkers are seeing many different types of people swiping their cards and hoisting themselves onto our blue metal tanks.

Though Manhattan is typically rife with tourists on bicycles, they’re mostly hidden in Central Park, where they can rent their vehicles and take oh-so-pleasant-that-runners-want-to-maul-them tours of our fair garden. With the ubiquity of the Citibikes around Manhattan and Brooklyn (see above), it provides exactly what Citibike’s planners wanted: a truly new way to explore the City of New York for the Citibike Tourist (Italian, Australian, or otherwise). And much more than 59th – 110th Streets.

The Citibike Lovebirds. Ever the romantic, given Brooklyn, Queens, or Lower Manhattan resident takes his girlfriend around town, showing off his knowledge of the built environment and its nuances. When did he move here? Last month. But his new girlfriend (who doesn’t know that yet) is enamored of the tidbits he’s able to spew out, after having spent ten years reading Emphemeral New York and dreaming about moving here after college.

Finally, the Citibike Bros. It’s safe to say that commuter cycling in New York and throughout most of the US is a less-than glamorous activity. I may use the term “bro” loosely, but he and his buddies may be found at 2nd Avenue in Midtown or the Lower East Side on a given evening (pick your poison). With the advent of this program, it seems at least to me that the slicked-back-hair toting, fitted-button-down-shirt wearing entry-level financier is less opposed to the ease of this mode of transportation. I mean, it was this easy when they were at Cornell, Penn, and Harvard, so why not shake things up a bit in Manhattan. And of course using the beloved program and not having to lock up one’s own vehicle means that one never has to say…dude where’s my bike?

 

Spinning class on Citibikes

Photo courtesy: Sara Krulwich, NYT

Metropolitan Diary: Spinning on a rent-a-bike

I simply wanted to share this quick, hilarious slice of life in New York: impromptu spinning classes being given on the Citibikes of our cycle sharing program! I don’t know if Bycykler København is quite as happening…

Sharing for safer streets

Photo courtesy: Brian Thomas for the NYT

Bike Sharing Can Mean Safer Biking

I’ve often alluded to how bike sharing will be a “gateway drug” for us in America in terms of introducing urban commuter cycling to potential cyclists, pedestrians, and drivers alike, also making them more aware of their surroundings (i.e. more bikes on the road) and making the roads safer for cyclists as a result. I wanted to share the above piece which dives even deeper into the issues of bike safety in American cities (and it has some cool pictures too).

In Denmark the bike share program was merely a feather in the cap of a very prodigious, cycle-friendly society. I’m not alone in believing that it could have much more significant ramifications in NYC and other large, American metropoli.

The Vandals finally sacked Rome…err…my bike rack…but this time they were thwarted!

Kryptonite NYC "Fahgettaboudit" Lock (Photo courtesy: Kryptonite)

 

ABUS U-lock (Photo courtesy: ABUS)

 

Very original photos, as you can see. So this wasn’t the first time that one of my bikes has been vandalized but it was the most notable. As you may recall from earlier posts, I have three bikes with two parked in a public rack on the street a few steps from my home. The street is heavily trafficked, and right on a large Park…which probably makes it safer, yet, for my wheels out there. Like a good New Yorker, I use both of the locks above; the first (yes, it’s actually called a “fahgettaboudit” lock), to chain the frame to the rack, and the second to lock the frame also to the back wheel alone. Finally, the seat is also tethered to the frame. It is an almost-foolproof combination, and absolutely necessary if these vehicles are left outside 24/7/365.

One morning I arrived at my hybrid with a piece of GUM on the seat…a seeming effrontery which I would discover was a response to the attempted theft of half of my bike! The seat was detached from the frame…but remember the tethering above? They were unable to remove it, after the fact. They then tried to remove the entire front wheel by detaching it completely from the frame. Another only-partial success as the “faghettaboudit” lock kept the frame tight enough to the rack. In the end, they took the top of my bell, some grip material, and parts from my seat and the front wheel attachment. It only took a quick trip to the bike shop to get back in gear.

All that I would remark about the Danish experience is that I parked my bike for months outside on a main street with nothing more than a small cable lock affixing the front wheel to a pole. It still lives there to this day, with my friend in Frederiksberg. Danes are well-aware that bike theft (or borrowing…) is rampant throughout the Country, but…things are a bit “tougher” here on the streets of the Big Apple.

Happy Independence Day!

A tricked-out Fourth of July bicycle (courtesy of Origin-8)

 

The Kingdom of Denmark commemorates Grundlovsdag on June 5th (at least some people do…)…perhaps the closest thing to Denmark’s National Day, when, in the 19th century, it signed its Constitution. WE, the People of the United States of America, proudly celebrate our Independence Day on the Fourth of July of each year, commemorating the signing of our Declaration of Independence in 1776. In fact, people get SO excited to be American today, that they trick out their bikes like the above! (ha – ha …) Hey…I’ve never seen a Dannebrog-covered bicycle in Copenhagen!

Hey, watch out for that bicycle!

Cyclists in Copenhagen (photo courtesy "LucyJH")

Cycling in New York City (photo courtesy: The Guardian, Alamy)

The title of this entry I meant to be in the NYC context…but then I saw first photo above and thought that, ironically, it could be employed there as well…would anyone want to mess with one of those Danes, riding perilously through the harsh Copenhagen snow? Probably not! The cars, buses, and pedestrians in the background yield to THEM…not the other way around. Unfortunately, such is not the case in New York…jammed between two pathetic taxi cabs.

A few weeks back, perhaps ironically on the day of the Five Boro Bike Tour, I was hit by a taxi! Don’t be alarmed, it wasn’t a real accident…but the ensuing behavior of the driver was worth conveying. I was running an errand on a Saturday, and in fact right before I crossed the last street in front of my home, I had to stop at a light. The taxi next to me decided to run the red light from a stop to make a slow turn…seemingly ignoring the fact that I was in his way. As he started to turn into/over me and my bike started to tilt with me on top, I banged on his window and yelled at him, stupid tourists inside and all. After I banged on the window a few more times and dislodged myself from the taxi, I started pedaling away to him rolling down his window and screaming “idiot! idiot!” I of course responded with something like “get off the road” or whatever, and it was really a non-event. But the fact that a cab would almost run me over and then blame ME for basically *existing* is so telling…and unfortunate.

On the other hand…the below video was sent to me and really sheds some light upon much care is taken in the transit world to cater to cyclists in Copenhagen…and how important the bicycle is to the city’s urban landscape. I hope that I’ve occasionally been able to convey this myself…but sometimes a video is worth a thousand words.

Cycling in Copenhagen

As I’ve written in a few past posts, the Citibike program will really change things for the better in NYC…putting more bikes on the road and forcing people to “watch out,” in the positive direction of the situations above. It will take decades but I’m confident that taxi cab drivers and cyclists can one day live in perfect harmony on the streets of Manhattan, and all of the five boroughs, just like in, say, Kongens Nytorv, Christianshavn, Vesterbro, Nørrebro, and Frederiksberg.