Sustainable Bike Transportation in Europe

After staying up a little too late catching up on the Bachelorette, I snoozed my alarm to get up early for a run, but managed to get out the door early enough to catch the opening of Sct. Peders Bageri, home of legendary cinnamon rolls (thanks for the recommendation, Rachael!). As a ½ of a cinnamon connoisseur team (missed you, Galen, of course), I felt it was my duty. The cinnamon rolls were very tasty, but I enjoyed walking through the crisp morning air and watching the city wake up just as much.

I felt like a Dane biking to our meeting, listening to a podcast on the (5 minute) commute to a meeting with the professionals of the group to learn more about their work. The group is comprised of:

 

Dave – UO Transportation Services

Sara – Safe Routes to School

Tiffany – Eugene Chamber of Commerce 

Nick – Corvallis Metropolitan Planning Association

Rob – City of Eugene, Transportation Planning

 

Each person discussed their respective background, what they’re noticing here so far, and fielded questions from students.

 

After lunch at Grod and an espresso at Andersen & Maillard, we met up with the group at Superkilen, a park along a bike path by Bjark Inges Group (BIG). Marc’s former student, Em, met us there to tell us about her experience living and working in Copenhagen and answer questions.

We took a leisurely bike ride through Frederiksberg, ending with a beautiful walk through the Frederiksberg Gardens. 

 

Splitting off from the group, I went to check out the Cisterns in Sondermarken, an underground reservoir that is now used for art exhibitions and events. When buying our tickets, we were instructed to select Wellington boots and take two loops through the exhibit to allow our eyes to adjust. Not knowing what to expect, we descended the stairs, swapped our sandals for wellies, and slipped into the darkness. Kept company by the sloshing of the water and ambient, eerie, soundtrack, we forged deeper into the cistern and passing through hazy beams of light. Noticing a bright light emitting from a small structure, we peeked in to see restrooms in different states of submersion – one at the same level as the water we were standing in, one with the toilet beneath the water, and the last reaching up to the sink level (we learned later that these are exact reproductions “of the Bonn headquarters of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change”). Each portion of the restroom had the sense of a rapidly evacuated space left in disarray.

 

We continued on, beginning to follow a blue glow in the fog, catching a glimpse in the reflection of the water, and arriving at a neon sign claiming “IT IS NOT THE END OF THE WORLD.” Emerging from the darkness of the exhibit back into the sterile shoe-change area, I was already overcome by the power of the experience. Reading about the exhibit after I learned that the implication is that climate change is not the end of the world, simply the end of humanity. 

As we think about sustainable transportation and the very high stakes we are facing, sure, reducing parking is not the end of the world, but can we really afford not to?

That’s a very heavy note to end on, and we have discussed that the “end of the world” tactic is not particularly effective when implementing change, but I think this exhibit served as an important reminder about the future we may experience.

This morning we met with Karolina Petz at Gehl. Through her presentation we learned that Gehl focuses on people and how the built environment affects behavior. In their work, the human being is their starting point – they visit cities, spend time observing people and collecting data about how people use the space, and make recommendations for changes based on that data. Gehl adheres to the following approach:

1. The human being is the starting point
2. Maintaining a passion for making cities for people
3. Creating sustainable, lively, healthy, attractively designed cities

At Gehl they believe that livability starts with understanding people’s behaviors and needs, and have come to understand that while cultures and climates differ, behavior is quite universal.

Karolina brought us through an extensive and informative presentation, describing the approach, projects and learnings from Copenhagen. For me, some of the power in Gehl’s people-first mobility model is its simplicity. In their view, transport is about people. They observe how people experience and behave in public space, and consider how can we move people efficiently. In prioritizing moving cars, we actually reduce our ability to move people because cars take up so much space and typically occupy so few people. Gehl seeks to invite people to utilize a consistent and efficient network.

When Andreas Rohl joined the conversation, we learned that car parking is an emotional issue here in Copenhagen, which I believe the Eugene professionals have experienced as well.

We set out on a walk with Andreas, visiting new areas, and learning about different topics. We now understand that new apartments must dedicate 20% of the space to reduced rent apartments, and that the city looks at the location to make sure that there is a mix of housing without any concentration of privileged or reduced rent spaces.

Asking Andreas about implementing new projects and providing support for drug users revealed a pattern of support rather than enforcement. Rather than issuing citations for traffic violations, the city will deploy staff to help people navigate revised intersections. Instead of arresting drug users, the city has “fixer” houses and social workers to provide support.

Andreas also mentioned that bike parking is crucial to incentivizing biking, which has historically been an issue at train stations in Copenhagen. 

Listening to Andreas refer to “car parking” (which, in my experience, Europeans typically say instead of just “parking”), indicates a small but meaningful mindset shift. “Parking” is unspecific, but “car” or “bike” parking indicates there is not just one mode to consider.

After splitting up for lunch (a salad! Vegetables!), we retrieved our bikes, dropped them off at the hostel, and stopped into a few local stores to window shop. I ran around the city lakes during rush hour and enjoyed watching people go about their commutes or stop and enjoy the beautiful afternoon.

Thanks to the SCAN Design Foundation, we enjoyed a delicious and entertaining meal. To finish off the night we swung by a swanky cocktail bar called Ruby before biking home.

This morning, Catharine, Rachel, and I set out for pastries at Juno the bakery before meeting at Copenhagenize. After a very wet ride, we were disappointed to find that the bakery is closed on Monday’s. We stopped into a neighborhood coffee shop, had a lovely breakfast, and even saw a Great Dane puppy – what more could we have hoped for. I also noticed someone wearing a Hovding, an airbag helmet which is worn around your neck and deploys in case of an accident (since noticing one this morning I’ve seen a few more).

We met up with the group, were introduced to Morten Kabul, the former Mayor of Copenhagen and one of the CEO’s of Copenhagenize, a design firm focused on people and how to improve people’s ability to move within cities. His presentation was very informative and engaging. I was struck by a number of points:

• We can move 10 times as many people on streets with more bike lanes/mixed use/reallocated space as we can with single car lanes.
• Copenhagen was not always dominated by bikes
  • In the late 1950’s, there were abundant cars that filled up plazas and detracted from urban life
• Ad campaigns and encouragement are not enough, you have to provide infrastructure to improve conditions for biking and make it more attractive.
• Most building projects are completed on budget and on time, money left over from projects are put into a pool and used toward projects that go over budget

Following Morten on a bike tour, we saw a cobblestone street with smoothed lanes for bikes, followed the curve of the Cycle Snake, and visited the “Little Langebro” bridge that opened recently, and 3 months ahead of schedule.

After enjoying lunch and some discussions as a group, we split up once again and headed to observe some infrastructure in action. Rachel and I first stopped at the end of the Cycle Snake. This area was limited to bike, scooter, and pedestrian traffic. We noticed that it was very clear who was not familiar with the flow of traffic. While the area did not seem to be particularly busy at the time we were there, we each counted the number of people traveling in opposite directions for one minute – Rachel counted 20 people and I saw 15. 35 people a minute comes out to 16,800 people in 8 hours, roughly the span of a workday. The area obviously doesn’t experience that exact pattern every moment, but we were surprised that what seemed like relatively sparse travel translated into such a significant number of people.

We moved to a new spot at Fermentoren to grab a beer and observe a different intersection. After noticing a number of Dad’s traveling alone with children (or, to avoid assumptions, adult men traveling with children), we started tallying the number of men traveling alone with children, women traveling alone with children, and what appeared to be families traveling with children. The final tally was:

Men with kids – 13

Women with kids – 14

Families – 8

I was surprised by the number of men traveling alone with kids, which may be representative of my internalized assumptions about traditional gender roles. We also noticed that a significant number of people bike while wearing headphones, something I avoid when biking in the US for fear of not hearing noises that may alert me to a car or other potential hazard. We saw a number of people who appeared to be working for a food delivery company, some rode mopeds, others were on bike-share or personal bikes. Two people stopped by a recycling can and appeared to be collecting redeemable bottles and cans. We saw a couple people riding skateboards which also made me realize how few skateboards I’ve seen. We saw couples with one person riding in a cargo basket in the front, a skateboarder holding onto her friends bike as she rode, a dog enjoying a ride in a basket, and two friends high five while traveling and then took different routes to their next stop. Lastly, I saw someone running the in bike lane, answering a question I had myself trying to navigate the sidewalks of Nyhaven yesterday.

 

This morning, we were tasked with a scavenger hunt. Wally and I set out together, stopping by the Finnish Embassy and spending all too long in a grocery store trying to decide on items we wouldn’t find in the US. Wally also had the idea to pick up a funny toy to feature in each of our photos. We tracked down a windmill and a delicious cinnamon roll (kanelsnegl). We took ‘hygge-ily’ photos of people enjoying time together in parks and talked to a couple people stopped at red lights on their bikes. The scavenger hunt brought us to new places and familiar spots, but was a great opportunity to spend more time on bikes getting familiar with the rules of the road and layout of the city.

 

In the evening we headed to Brus to watch the Women’s World Cup final but were thwarted by the crowd. Instead we grabbed some food and ended up sitting outside and watching the game on Rebecca’s iPad. While our spot didn’t have the same energy, I was very happy to be outside enjoying the clear weather.

After a very early wake up and run among party people finishing their night, Brenna, Rachel, and I set off to the Meatpacking District, exploring different streets and eventually ending up at Torvehallerne, an indoor food hall where we got some snacks. From there we headed to the Design Museum, admired the many chairs, and had lunch before heading back to the hostel to rest before the evening. While riding, I noticed the slanted cycle track which prevented rain from pooling where people travel. After a whole almost-day on a bike, I found myself annoyed with a tourist for walking in the bike lane around Nyhaven (I’m certain that I am just as much of a nuisance to locals trying to get around.

Back at the hostel, Catherine mentioned that neither Uber or Lyft are available in Copenhagen. This surprised me since I took an Uber when I visited in 2016. After some internet research, I determined that the government wanted ride-share companies to comply with taxi regulations. Uber and Lyft did not want to do this and instead pulled their service from the city.

In the evening, we met up with “Bike Mike” for a tour of the city and some context about the history and politics of the area. While cool to see some new areas, since we had the morning free, we had already seen many of the areas we stopped at. Bike Mike has a wealth of knowledge about the city, but I didn’t care for his commentary about American politics, whether it was a joke or not.

Splitting from the group, I booked it over to Amass and managed to snag the last walk-in seat available. I enjoyed an incredible meal with each course brought to me by a different member of the kitchen staff who explained the ingredients and their origins. The head chef, Matt Orlando, worked at Noma before opening Amass, and deeply prioritizes sustainability. Referring to their website, I learned that they implement the following practices:

• • Use every part of ingredients both to reduce waste and create new dishes and flavors
    • “By-products” drive creativity
    • Through this able to reduce waste by 75%
  • Responsible, sustainable state of mind that shapes everything
  • 90% + organic
  • Compost used for garden and some turned into tea
  • Any remaining waste including frying oil processed for biofuel
  • Remaining water from tables used in the kitchen, for watering in the garden, or for washing floors
  • Recycling and reducing single use items
  • Responsibly sourced fish
  • Amass Green Kids Program – engage with local kids about food, both tending to vegetables in the garden and cooking in the kitchen

I’ve come to realize that I overestimate my ability to fight fatigue when traveling. Upon arriving in Copenhagen and waiting for my luggage, I was exhausted and eager for a shower and some rest. Instead, I unloaded my baggage at the hostel, enjoyed some avocado on seedy rye at Atelier September, and took a long walk around the area before meeting up with the group.

After initial introductions, we set off on a bike ride in pairs, tasked to follow people and get a sense for the city and for biking conventions in Copenhagen. We followed a few different people, switching when they arrived at their destination, and studied their movements. When arriving early to the park for dinner, Rachel and I took advantage of the opportunity to grab beers from the corner store and take a walk around the park before meeting up with everyone. After sitting down with everyone, I am still thinking about the following points:

• Liked the hand railing/foot rest
• Buildings not set back
  • Not built particularly high
  • Few driveways to negotiate
• When doing a Copenhagen left and completing the first portion, wait in front of the crosswalk
• What does police enforcement look like and who does it affect?
• What is the recycling program like?

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