Spacing publisher Matt Blackett talked to copenhagenize.com‘s Colville Andersen while visiting Copenhagen last week. Matt talks about the Danish capital’s bike culture and modern architecture.
Meanwhile, on March 7 myself (representing pedestrians), Spacing transit columnist Steve Munro, and Spacing photographer Yvonne Bambrick (representing cyclists) participated in a panel discussion about how to share the road on TVO’s The Agenda. The other guests were Jeff Casello, an assistant professor in the School of Planning and the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Waterloo, and the lone car spokesperson, David Booth, a columnist and senior writer for the weekly Driving section at the National Post.
Meanwhile, on March 7 myself (representing pedestrians), Spacing transit columnist Steve Munro, and Spacing photographer Yvonne Bambrick (representing cyclists) participated in a panel discussion about how to share the road on TVO’s The Agenda. The other guests were Jeff Casello, an The most interesting point that came out of the discussion for me was Jeff Casello’s comment that transit and walking both get better the more people do it — when more people take transit, it becomes more viable and service can become more frequent, while when more people walk, walking feels safer and therefore more people want to walk. They are positive feedback loops. (A recent study in England shows that the same is true of cycling.) With cars, on the other hand, the more people drive, the more congestion you get and the less effective and attractive driving is.
You can also download the video of the discussion from The Agenda’s website (click on the “Sharing the Road” tab – but the interview with Fred Hansen describing Portland’s transportation programs is also well worth watching).
As well, I wrote a guest blog on The Agenda blog about the importance of walking in transportation policy.
One comment
I actually live in Copenhagen as apart of a university exchange via Ryerson and the bike aspect amazed me too. What was also noticeably cool is the fact on the cargo bikes, people carry around children was well. I see entire day cares on 4 bikes with adults riding them.
Bikes seem to have more right of way in Copenhagen as well; car and pedestrians should watch out for them at all costs because they won’t slow down for you!
Touching again on the aspect that all people ride bikes is also truly fascinating. If you’re ever in the business district, you will see men and women in business attire biking home with their brief cases in their front baskets.
The government makes it so hard as well to own a car to encourage use of public transportation and green transit by levying a hefty tax on cars, not to mention the gas prices are insane. The transit infrastructure in the city is very dense, so much so, that there really is no excuse for not taking it. The monthly “metropass” is also the more smarter ideas for encouraging transit. The month starts on the pass when YOU want it to; I bought my metropass on March 11, and it was good until April 12. I wasn’t constricted to start or end of the month time frame. Especially when I didn’t need a metropass between March 1 and 11.
The pedestrian walkways and outdoor shopping is what I look forward to in the future of downtown Markham.