The amazing cycling city of Copenhagen

So my second conference, VeloCity 2010, has come to an end, and what an amazing experience that was. It was probably the most interactive conference I've ever been to; I only attended one conventional "sit down and listen" lecture session. The rest of the time was devoted to inspiring keynote speakers, group round-table sessions (where I presented some work on cycle safety for example), "speed dating" sessions where a range of people could present some findings in about 7 minutes before you moved on to the next one, and opportunities to explore on your bike and talk to people stationed at a dozen locations of interest around the city.

In fact, for me, the city itself was the highlight of the conference. It's one thing to know that Copenhagen is famous for its cycling; it's another thing to see it in action! The range of facilities was impressive and it was particularly interesting to see how they worked in practice, esp. when some of them seemed not "technically optimal" - it didn't matter; people used them! In fact it could be almost dangerous to ride around with the sheer number of people on bikes; any time a "tourist" like me wanted to stop and take a picture and then start again, I had to be sure that I didn't wipe out a bunch of cyclists behind me.

The normality of cycling is striking - people rode in all kinds of clothes (often very stylish) and on all kinds of bikes (esp. lots of wonderful "cargo bikes" with extra people on front or back). I think it's a myth about slower, more casual riding in Europe - many of the cyclists I saw were moving pretty fast actually. Also interesting to see that many were quite blasé about road rules; there was a certain brazen attitude exemplified by cyclists who ignored intersection controls or stop points, chatted on their cellphones, and jumped around pedestrians. I guess when there are that many of you, the level of ill-feeling by others is rather limited...

It was also good to catch up with my Christchurch colleagues who were also there for the conference (including enjoying a drink at the pub while watching NZ play Paraguay!), as well as may other old and new colleagues. I understand that VeloCity 2012 is being hosted in Vancouver (another of my favourite cities) so already I'm pencilling that one in...

All up, Copenhagen is a wonderful city and I'd love to return - just as long as someone else is paying! Man, it's expensive... Before here, on our final leg in the motor-home, we also visited some other very lovely places in Switzerland and southern Germany, including Zurich and Freiburg. Again, all too brief a visit, but I'd certainly like to return to that part of the world again too.

"Copenhagen-style" bike lanes, behind car parking (in other places, it was kerbed; in other places it was just conventional painted lanes)

Clever use of limited street space for bike lanes, car/bike parking, and pedestrian crossings

This street has 32,000 cyclists a day!

"The gang" at VeloCity; all from Christchurch - Glen, Andrew Macbeth (ViaStrada), Simon Kingham (Canty Uni), Michael Ferigo (Chch CC)