Saturday, August 14, 2010

Bicycles everywhere!

It's worth taking a moment to remark on the presence, the ubiquity, the pure everywhereness of bicycles in Copenhagen. They are never out of sight.


The bicycle parking stalls verge on the ridiculous in terms of size, yet they still cannot contain the number of bicycles that residents use. It is simply the best way to get around this flat, moderately spread out town.


And they have built the infrastructure to make it safe and easy. Bike lanes on every street. Always distinct, often physically separated and sometimes marked with bright color, these lanes really take the stress out of riding. They even have separate traffic lights for bicycles! so fantastic, especially coming from the still nascent infrastructure in San Francisco.


It leads to these incredible situations like the one outside of Tivoli Park on Friday night, where the bikes were stacked on the left and right of the bike lane, with some even piled on top of the rest. And it is the perfect way to get your arms around the town in short order.

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