June 25, 2023. 

Copenhagen has always been on my travel list as one of the top cities I'd hope to visit because it is one of the world's most bike-friendly cities. I began bike commuting in Portland beginning in 2017 as a cheap method of transportation and fell in love with it right away. Each year since 2017, I have explored cycling in a new a way and have pushed myself to greater challenges (long distance cycling, gravel riding, and bikepacking). I began working for the City of Portland, Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) in Spring 2022 as a project manager, where I lead projects that improve conditions for cyclists and pedestrians.

This trip is exciting to me both personally and professionally because I am able to live in a city with top-tiered bicycle infrastructure, which sounds like an absolute dream. I am eager to learn and share design strategies that have been successful in Copenhagen in hopes of piloting in PBOT.

June 25, 2023. 

Day 1 - Observations

The bike lanes in Copenhagen are much wider than most of the bike lanes in Portland. There are multiple travel lanes in the bike lane and faster people pass on the left without ringing a bell or saying they are passing. Most people are dressed in normal clothes and most of the bikes are upright bikes.  There are many cargo bikes and I see people traveling with their whole family in one cargo bike. Cyclists hardly run the red lights in Copenhagen, instead they wait for their yellow light until they begin pedaling. 

June 28: Bike tour & Movia

We got a really great bike tour today where we explored streets dedicated to bikes, great architecture and bike paths, and I spotted trees in the roadway on our way to Movia. Trees in the roadway is a pilot project PBOT is currently exploring at doing to be able to plant street trees in high equity areas where there is not enough width in the planting strip to plant trees based on Title 11 Urban Forestry tree code. I was excited to see that Copenhagen is working on unique designs to work more green space into the city.

My favorite topic touched on by Movia was their emphasis on Mobility Hubs, which I think is a concept Portland could focus on more. The only place I can see being close to a mobility hub is the Transfer Station out on 99th. I am impressed to see the expansion of BikeTown stations around Portland but I believe we can do better as a city to work to connect people to their multimodal methods of transportation.

June 29: Bike tour & Bicycle Safety Lecture

We got to do another awesome bike tour today where we explored several parks, community spaces, and bike trails. I loved how he talked about houseless people stashing their belongings in trees at the park and retrieving them at night, as they are part of the community.  It was cool to be able to explore several community courtyards and experience the Danish lifestyle of community and sharing, which seems so different from the lifestyle in the US. Anne Eriksson gave an awesome presentation about bicycle design and safety. I loved hearing about the parking enforcement to prevent cars to park in the bike lane and the prioritization of plowing bike lanes before they plow car lanes.

June 30: Nordhavn Bike Tour & Urban13 

Today's bike tour was my favorite because it included the instructor speaking into a microphone on a Zoom meeting that we were all connected to. The bike ride felt way more engaging and the bike ride felt more safe as she was able to describe upcoming intersections and if we were dismounting. We explored Nordhaven on our bikes in which they are building a new neighborhood on top of water. I have noticed a theme in Copenhagen where they build parking garages underground which seems like a great way to save space and a win for everyone. Urban13 is a cool DIY space dedicated to serve as a youth space where they put on concerts, movie nights, and sports activities. My favorite part about the space was all of the DIY buildings mostly out of shipping containers.