In this year’s course, I designed a list of purposive quests for students to complete throughout their time in a given city.  In the past, we’ve given a scavenger hunt to complete in an afternoon that asks students to quickly go to cultural destinations and look at fun things on bicycles.  These quests embed planning-related concepts and ask students to observe and reflect on neighborhoods, transportation, land use, and infrastructure in a deeper way.  Students work in pairs that will vary by city. For each of the five cities we visit, students will complete a slightly different set of quests. They get to choose three of the nine options. These are the Copenhagen related quests:

Quest: Follow a local on a bike for as long as you can keep up!

Objective: Understand local cycling behavior and learn to mirror.

Share a photo of where you ended up.

What did you notice about their behavior on a cycle?  Their dress? Their bike?

How far did you ride? (in minutes or miles)

• How do older and new neighborhoods vary in infrastructure access?

Quest: Choose two neighborhoods from this website, focusing on different eras or patterns of development.

Objective: Visualize how development patterns have changed over time in Copenhagen and how transportation relates to land use patterns.

Share a photo that epitomizes each neighborhood.

What did you notice about how people moved around? (from observation) – were they biking, walking, taking transit, or driving?

What was land use and transportation access like?  Does the neighborhood have Metro access? Are there protected bicycle lanes? Sidewalks? Car parking?

• How are different modes of transportation complements?

Quest: Bike along a rail route and take the rail home (you can do this on S-tog or Oresundstag)

Objective: Understand how bicycling and transit are integrated.

Share a photo of getting on the bus with your bike.

How much did it cost to bring your bike?

Were there restrictions on the number of bikes?

Did bikes get their own train cars?

How easy was it to get the bike up and down off the platform?

 

• How are different modes of transportation integrated?

Quest: Take 3 different modes of non bicycle transportation (e.g.: electric ferry, Metro, S-tog (commuter rail), bus, train)

 

Share a photo of yourself on all 3 modes!

What modes did you ride?

Did you have to buy separate tickets?

What apps did you use to find your way?

How easy was the wayfinding between modes?

• How are bicycle routes signed?

Quest: Choose either a “C” regional route and bike to the next town OR choose a neighborhood from a bicycle wayfinding sign in the city, and bike to it.

Objectives: Learn whether wayfinding is easy to follow and find destinations; experience regional routes.

Share a photo of the sign or bike lane with the C.

Where did you ride?

How far did you ride?

What was the neighborhood like?

Did you find a different way back?

• How do modes interact?

Quest: Go to a busy intersection and observe behavior between bicycles, buses, cars, and observe how modes interact.

Objective: Understand how different users of bicycles, buses, vehicles, and walkers  interact in intersections.

              Share a photo of the intersection.

How are the modes looking for each other?

What do signals look like?

Did you see any collisions or near collisions?

Count the number of people using each mode within a 15 minute increment (similarly to the pre-assignment)

• Where do land use patterns change?

Quest: Bike into the suburbs until you find a detached, single family home.

Objective: Understand how land use and density vary, and how transportation is integrated into lower density neighborhoods.

Share a photo of the home.

How far did you ride to get there?

What’s around you?

What are transportation options nearby?

How close are groceries, schools, and other services?

• Where do people play?

Quest: Find at least 3 community spaces that are used by kids, adults, or both.

Objective: Understand how social spaces are embedded into the city, and how people arrive at these spaces. Observe transportation and behavior in these spaces.

Share photos of each place.

Who is using the space?

What are they doing?

How did people arrive/leave?

• How do kids get to school?

Quest: Observe dropoff at a primary school. (typically 7:30-8:30) – search for Skolen

Objective: Understand how transportation to school works and differs from the U.S.

Share a photo of the school with the bike parking options.

How old were kids riding bikes alone?

How many kids seemed to get dropped off in motor vehicles?

What do the crossings and streets look like near schools?

• How do university students get to school?

Question: Observe university class changes

Objective: Understand how transportation to university works and differs from the U.S.

Share a photo of the university parking situation (bikes, cars, etc).

How do students seem to get around?

How does it compare to your campus in the U.S.?

What does the infrastructure look like?