Throughout the class, one of the primary activities that students complete is writing blogs that are structured and unstructured. Unstructured blogs give students a chance to reflect on what they’re seeing and how they’re feeling as they experience a new culture and riding bicycles on different infrastructure. Structured blogs ask students to explore the city in a purposive manner and reflect on their experiences. The first three structured blogs relate to social trust, infrastructure, and regional cycling routes. These are the prompts:
Option 1: Social Trust – Cities for Kids
Denmark is known for social trust, and this applies to kids. We visited the Traffic Garden, which is one of the 27 “staffed playgrounds” around the city where adults can send their kids. Choose three of these parks, go visit, observe for 30 minutes each and write a blog reflecting on the questions below. Note that you may want to choose a weekend or after school hours. Be cautious about taking photos with kid’s faces. You can complete this activity alone, in pairs, or in small groups.
- How do you see children moving about the city?
- How do children arrive at the staffed playgrounds? (mode of transportation)
- What are adults doing while children are playing?
- How does social trust extend to cities for people and cycling?
Traffic Garden (Staffed Playground)
Option 2: Infrastructure Design
Gehl talked about four different types of cycling infrastructure (shared space, painted lane, curb separate bike tracks and buffered bike track.) In addition to these four types of lates, there are also other aspects to observe like: bridges, traffic calming, bicycle parking, intersection design, cargo-hauling, normal people on bikes, little things that make things a bit better (like bicycle “love handles” at intersections or a little asphalt right where you need it) Examine the design standards in the 2024 Cycle Friendly Infrastructure guide.
- Go out exploring on your own (or with one other person, if you’d like)
- Find some of the infrastructure types (shared space, painted lane, curb separate bike tracks and buffered bike tracks, or something else you notice not on this list)
- Get off your bike and hang out near the intersection (could be at a café or park, or just standing around) for 10-15 minutes, observing traffic flow from various modes to see how it works
- Try to find at least 4 different examples of infrastructure types
Nick biking in Copenhagen and stopped at a light
Write a blog that reflects on the following questions:
- How does the infrastructure enhance the behavior of cyclists?
- What was your level of comfort and stress using the 4 types of lanes?
- How could the design be integrated into the U.S. context?
- What improvements would you suggest to improve the functionality or signage of the infrastructure?
Option 3: Cycling Superhighways, Green Wave, and Bike to Rail
Have you noticed the “C” in the bike lane? Copenhagen has many cycling superhighways that connect neighborhoods to the city center. Cyclists even get the Green Wave so that they can move a consistent speed and hit the greens as they’re commuting into the city.
Additionally, it’s easy and free to take your bike on the S-tog trains. You can use the DOT app to buy a 24 DKK ticket.
Choose a cycling superhighway and ride to a destination (e.g. Bakken theme park, Hellerup Strandbad (beach), the Louisana museum or a suburb. Pay attention to how and whether the infrastructure changes as you move outside city limits. Take the S-tog or Oresundtag train back into the city center.
Cycling superhighway
S-tog train with bike car
Write a blog that reflects on the following questions:
- How easy was it to follow the Cycling Super Highway Route?
- How did the infrastructure change as you moved jurisdictions?
- How easy was it to bring your bike onto the train? What was easy? What was difficult?
- What lessons would you bring back to the U.S.? (Good or bad)
If you’re interested in following along, here is the 2025 blog of blogs!
| Student | Weblink |
| Abe | blogs.uoregon.edu/socialrepairbybicycle/ |
| John | wheelywelltraveled.wordpress.com |
| Ezra | https://blogs.uoregon.edu/ezraineurope/ |
| Michael | https://blogs.uoregon.edu/kencarsonbikerides/ |
| Cat | cyclingcats.wordpress.com |
| Aidan | http://sustainablebiketransportation.wordpress.com |
| Bella | https://tourdebella.weebly.com/ |
| Asia | https://asialieberman-imkbf.wordpress.com/ |
| Caitlin | http://bikingwithoutborders.wordpress.com |
| Aidan | https://blogs.uoregon.edu/murphyonabike/ |
| Bennett | https://bennettsbikeblog.wordpress.com/ |
| Izzy | popechronicles.wordpress.com |
| Owen | owenpyle03-yqlti.wordpress.com |
| Harry | guyonabike6.wordpress.com |
| September | https://thisseptember.weebly.com |
| Jade | https://blogs.uoregon.edu/pppm488f25rebeccalewisnickmeltzer/ |