What bicycle-respecting streets, intersections, and neighborhoods look like is largely a mystery to most Cascadians, even those who cycle regularly. I’ve offered descriptions twicebefore. Since then, two wonderful new tools have been completed.
StreetFilms.org, the awesome, New York-based outfit that makes movies about cycling, has posted a 30-minute ode to Portland’s bikability (linked above). It makes Bicycle Respect visible. (Other, shorter StreetFilms works on Portland are collected here, but most of them are incorporated in the main piece. I suggest you start the film then press pause to let it download before you watch it.)
Among American cities, Portland is considered a cycling powerhouse, but Copenhagen has ten times the Rose City’s cycling rate. How do the Danes do it? That’s what University of Washington planner Alyse Nelson spent much of last year in Copenhagen trying to find out. She assembled her conclusions in an elegantly illustrated report (pdf)—a picture book on how to build a cycling city. The gritty particulars of street designs and diagrams of parking placement will fascinate specialists, but I think the main lesson of Alyse’s booklet is visible simply by looking at the pictures. Copenhagen treats bicycles with as much care and attention as it treats cars. Consequently, cycling in Copenhagen is commonplace: normal, mundane, unremarkable. Sort of like driving in Cascadia.
(Check out the cyclist on page 4, pedaling home from a furniture store with an armoire strapped to his bike.)
Mary Fellows
This was fascinating, and of compelling interest following the two fatal cycling accidents here in Portland in the last two weeks. My focus tonight was on the information about intersections, but I look forward to reading it all.Thanks!
Alan Durning
UPDATE:A nice piecein the Willamette Week adds some detail.
Sea
This was fascinating, and of compelling also because of the five times I’ve been hit by motor vehicles in my 44 years of bike commuting. I dearly wish the Seattle & King Co politicians would get it together. I’ve also been fighting for cycling through the Bicycle Alliance & Cascade Bicycle Club for many years and it has been a major exercise in frustration. I went to the BG trail meeting & found out, again, that there’s going to be another delay and funding still isn’g in place. I guess the only way I’m going to see something progress in my lifetime is to move to Portland.
Douglas Todd
I hadn’t thought about how videos are an excellent way to show people who aren’t able to travel just how well biking can work in places like Copenhagen and throughout Holland. I wonder if there is an educational video about cycling routes and cycling possibilities in northern Europe?By the way, I am not too techno-saavy. Where is the link to the 30-minute Portland video? You just write “link above” but I don’t see it.Since I write at The Vancouver Sun newspaper, I would be very interested in someone could link me to a great website or online video about bicycling in Europe. I could put it on my Sun blog.My work email is dtodd@vancouversun.com