This morning we headed to the Malmö municipal offices to meet with Jesper Nordlund, the bicycle planner for the city. I learned so much but a few things jumped out at me:
- Perhaps obviously, car ownership boomed as the economy strengthed after the war. The Danish economy was not boosted as much as Malmö’s, though, so with fewer cars there was less drive (hah) to tear down bike lanes to make room for cars.
- Malmö’s bike infrastructure is primarily comprised of bidirectional lanes, which they feel is more efficient in a smaller city.
- They have implemented a summer pedestrian street as a pilot project to gauge people’s reactions. Removing parking spaces (which they learned were almost entirely used by shop owners) increased traffic to the stores so much that other areas have requested a similar change.
- There are programs to bike around the elderly so they can feel the wind in their hair! There are classes to teach immigrants how to bike!
Biking around with Jesper, I got a better sense of the flow of the city. We checked out their extensive bike parking for the central station, saw some water drainage solutions, and even stumbled upon the adorable traffic safari.
I should note that I asked Jesper about the Swedish candy eating ritual and while he was familiar with the idea, he told me that only children participate.
That evening, we celebrated Marc’s 50th birthday with a progressive dinner/block party. Each room provided food or drinks and we made our way around eating, drinking, and hanging out. We all had a blast and were very happy to celebrate Marc!
