Bicycle Infrastructure Fail(s)

An op-ed by Mikael Colville-Andersen of Copenhagenize Design Company.

1 minute read

May 6, 2016, 9:00 AM PDT

By PabloValerio @pabl0valerio


Who, in their right mind, would ACTUALLY choose to put cyclists in the middle of a street with speeding cars on either side? Certainly not anyone with an understanding of the bicycle’s role in urban life as transport or a sincere desire to encourage cycling and keep people safe. Find the person who is responsible and fire them.

By and large, we are optimists here at Copenhagenize Design Company. In our extensive travels around the world to our client cities and to give keynotes, we are privileged to see so many cities changing for the better and working to reestablish the bicycle as transport on the urban landscape. We get to work with great cities to help them make it happen. I’ve ridden bicycles in over 70 cities around the world with my work and while often the infrastruture [sic] is sensible, once in a while I am presented with weird stuff. Like the photo, above, taken in Washington, DC by our colleague Ole Kassow of Cycling Without Age. Initially, our team of planners and urban designers here at our Copenhagen office had a good laugh but then it sinks in. This is actually a thing. Someone was tasked with putting in bicycle infrastructure and THIS is what a city ended up with. 

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