July 9, 2023.

• Praise to the Copenhagen courtyard and the nation of nooks.

• Praise for bike signals, specifically the "get -ready" yellow light prior to the green. 

• Ultimately, I’d like to come back. I’d like to spend more time here with a looser, slightly less structured schedule. I’d like to stay in and see more of the non-city center areas and to better understand the commutes, experiences, and expenses of everyday folks living, working, and navigating their day-to-day routines.

• I really enjoyed biking in Copenhagen, other than the lack of verbal communication from passing cyclists. I’m not sure I think an assertive bell ring is better than stating that you’re passing. But, I understood the flow and movement and I comfortably fell in line like another schooling fish.

• Praise to the Copenhagen left turn (which was first described to me as a Dutch left).

• Praise for black licorice.

• I sincerely appreciated the abundance of non-curated public gathering spaces. Places people could just be. Plazas, parks, courtyards, general harbor hangouts and the like around lakes and other waterways.

• Praise to all the flower stands and the abundance of folks walking and biking with flowers.

• I'm once again considering if I'd like to be a transportation planner or work within more of a transportation or urban planning context – outside of just bikeshare. It was great to hear more holistic approaches to transportation planning and urban design from Ras Frisk with arki_lab and Bettina Werner with Urban 13 (I missed her lecture, but I heard and read updates from classmates). I felt that the ethos of their work prioritizes people and contextualizes their needs within an environment -- its histories, demands, and futures. They felt like caring, creative, curious, and challenging people. I felt aligned with their missions and pursuits within planning. Their approaches to planning work felt affirming and inviting.

• Praise and gratitude to everyone who speaks multiple languages.

• Praise for the following phrases: "share what's at the top of your heart" / "cloudbursts" / "death of the deadend" / "pleasure garden" 

• Bikeshare maybe doesn’t play the same role in Denmark and Sweden as it does in the U.S. In Copenhagen, people already bike. It’s what they do. It’s part of the culture and core to the social fabric. Less convincing is needed. People here have a bike or a few strategically stashed along their multimodal commutes in different parts of town. They’ve been biking continuously since they were gliding around on their straddler bikes in the traffic garden. Bikeshare is perhaps more for visitors and tourists in Copenhagen. Whereas in the U.S., convincing is needed. I think bikeshare plays more of a pivotal role for encouraging and growing bike ridership in many cities. Nationally, bikeshare use is mostly recreational, but it does get hundreds of thousands of people on bikes who don’t typically bike or have their own bike. It’s also great for the visibility of biking for drivers as well. And as more and more bikeshare systems shift to electric fleets that adds to interest and increases ridership and use. Bikeshare in the U.S. is a gateway to biking, a tool for inciting mode shift and increasing general bike use. 

• Praise to the ferry. I rode three ferries of various sizes in the past two weeks and I freaking love that!

July 8, 2023.

Following a few farewells to classmates, I checked out of the hotel and into my AirBnB, southwest of the city center near Fiskerihavnen, an old fishing port community. My host suggested a harbor bus ride down to Reffen when I told her I planned to visit Contemporary Copenhagen. The ferry bus is also operated by Movia, the bus company, and the nearest stop was a 5 minute bike ride away. I rode the ferry end to end, which took about 90 minutes for 9 stops. I brought my bike along also. 

That evening, I finally jumped in the harbor! I swam with a new Danish friend and talked for a few hours seated on the docks. About 20 feet away from us, 30 or so folks (who I’d seen day drinking on my ferry ride slid into night drinking) hosted their own dance party with a portable speaker and a never-ending supply of Carlsberg.

After the harbor dip, we ate a whole chicken at a delicious late-night spot on C-94 (a Cycle Super Highway) in Norrebro. We saw the rotisserie chicken spinning from across the street in the cycle track, which felt like an acknowledgement about how biking and walking allows you to stop and take part in the environment around you.

July 8, 2023.

(Here I am talking about bikeshare again 😊) In Malmo, our guide mentioned that the city provided bikeshare and pointed out a nearby station. I was surprised to see a station based system after only seeing dockless bikes for nearly 2 weeks. No other details were mentioned, but I managed to snap a few photos of the bikes and stations.  

In general, bikeshare wasn’t mentioned much. Though, like I mentioned previously, there were plenty of dockless bikes available throughout Copenhagen from at least four operators and hotels had shared fleets for guest rentals.

Another prevalent bikeshare-rental hybrid system was the Swapfiet bikes, which, from a google search, are monthly rentals of classic or electric bikes (4 total options) that you can pick up from a Swapfiet store or have delivered to you. There’s an app for placing an order, paying invoices, and making service requests. Pretty cool!

Unfortunately, I didn’t ride one. But, I saw their unmistakable front blue tire on bikes everywhere – in Copenhagen, Aalborg, Aarhus, and Amsterdam too. On several occasions I saw food delivery bicyclists on Swapfiet bikes in each city also. Delivery riders across several companies (Wolt, Just eat, Uber eats, etc.) rode an array of bicycles and mopeds; they were easily spotted with their big boxy back packs strapped to them or their bikes.

July 7, 2023.

I was fortunate to visit a few contemporary and modern art spaces while in Denmark and the Netherlands. Here a few images from exhibitions at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, Aros Art Museum in Aarhus, and Contemporary Copenhagen.

The regret I feel for not visiting the Louisiana Musuem of Art is palpable. But, I hope to return to Copenhagen again someday and I’ll make sure to visit the museum.  This is where I would put the clever analogy about exiting through the giftshop if I managed to come up with it.

[Seperately, I hope to tour the incredible oddity that is Amager Bakke (Hill), a waste management plant and recreation facility with climbing wall and ski slope!]

July 6, 2023.

Our last tour and lecture took place in Malmö, Sweden. We crossed the sound by bus via Oresundbroen – part bridge, part island and underwater tunnel. This megaproject connects Denmark and Sweden for rail and automotive traffic; it opened in 2000. 

While in Malmö, we met with Martin Nelson, a Technical Designer for Gehl Copenhagen and Lecturer at the Department of Urban Studies at Malmö University. We also met with Traffic Safety Senior Advisor Lars Ekman from the Swedish Transport Administration.

Lars primarily discussed Vision Zero. The concept of Vision Zero as many of our city planners know and practice it today, began in Sweden in 1997. We caught Lars (and Anne, the Danish Traffic Safety Engineer, as well) on the heels of the international Vision Zero Conference in Stockholm. There were an interesting conversation about companies enveloping Vision Zero and traffic safety within their missions, much like they have with climate action and responsibility to reduce their carbon footprints and impact. This was an interesting angle of shifting responsibility to create safe environments.   

So much of our conversation with Lars was fruitful. He reminded us of the complexity of road traffic/travel and the number of users and objects you have to plan for and consider, as well as the longevity (good or bad) of the infrastructure  or plan you create. He walked us through Sweden’s definition and contributories of safe environments within Vision Zero and how they have reframed the traditional traffic planning approach to better reduce traffic fatalities and serious injuries, while also increasing bicycling and transit use.

Prior to meeting with Lars, we had lunch at Malmö Saluhall, a food hall and market, and enjoyed a tour led by Martin Nelson. He led us on a walking tour through the city center highlighting bike, bus, and pedestrian infrastructure – with special recognition for their Somma Streets which seamlessly blend slow-moving pedestrian, bike, and vehicular traffic together.

The Somma Streets were about a block long and narrowed with planters, seating, and signage, which creates a sort of rippling plaza-like setting, causing everyone to move with caution and care for one another. Martin also made note of the history behind several pedestrian plazas and the legacy of the different meat, fish, and produce markets.

Our tour started and ended at different station entrances to the underground train system. Each entrance had ample bike parking surrounding it as well as public restrooms, transit connections, and cafes too.

This was a casual and informative day trip to Sweden. I wish we could have spent a bit more time here – perhaps taken the train over the Oresund bridge like the other 70,000+ daily commuters.

July 5, 2023.

-          Licorice ice cream

-          Licorice marshmallow fluff

-          Licorice waffle cone (which was completely black!)

-          Licorice liqueur shot (35% alcohol)

-          An incredible variety of Haribo gummy candies, which all included at least one type of licorice

July 3-5, 2023.

Week two began with a ferry ride. Our group traveled up north to Aalborg to meet with folks at COWI, a engineering and architecture consultancy. Rene Gunderson, VP of Transport Infrastructure in North Denmark, talked us through the company’s history, bridge work, and their recent pivot to prioritizing sustainable projects, such as wind and solar energy. 

Ole Breith, Project Manager A/S, shared about Bus Rapid Transit (BRT). We walked along part of the BRT route, saw several of the BRT bus stations, as well as the bike-ped addition to the rail bridge. The BRT line is scheduled to open in September with 24 stops.

We toured the city on foot and on bikes for two days. Now a college town, with prime real estate along the harbor dedicated to student housing, Aalborg was once an industrial city with large facilities for producing concrete, alcohol, and tobacco. Only the concrete industry remains.

I really enjoyed visiting the Culture house in the Fjordbyen neighborhood, a former fisherman community on the west side of town, full of creative and simple residential shacks. The community is located beside the harbor with only a few feet between homes. There was a wooden effigy of a large bird (or dragon) sitting beside the harbor with tree limbs and brush beneath it. Residents are waiting for the rain and wind to pass, so they could set it ablaze and afloat.

...

Our trip to Aarhus was very brief. We stopped for a short visit to the Aros Art Museum and a rainy walk to lunch along a beautiful pedestrian plaza with a canal. Ninety minutes isn't enough time to experience several floors of art exhibitions (and a gift shop :P) , but I got to check out the Rainbow Panorama atop the building, the Far from Home exhibition, and Human Nature a permanent exhibition, which seamlessly threaded together a varied collection of works from across decades and styles according to the themes: Nature, Landscape, Religion, Philosophy, Psychology, and Abstraction. I live for a didactic panel. So dope!   

...

We returned to Copenhagen by bus and crossed the Little Belt Bridge and the Great Belt Bridge, which were both catalytic and defining projects of COWI. COWI has international clients and projects including several in the USA and Canada, Turkey, and throughout the European Union.

July 3, 2023.

the Curl
isn’t enough

for those
who squat,
sturdying  yourself
through emergency
and angle,

half visible,
wrong-footed
says the yelling men
and you’re still

going 

July 2, 2023.

We met with Morten Eltveld, Project Leader for Movia, Copenhagen's bus system, as well as Anne Erickson, a Traffic Safety Engineer for the Danish Road Directorate. Anne gave us an historical overview of bicycling and cycle safety from the national level and Morten discussed the role the bus plays within the transportation landscape for Copenhagen and neighboring municipalities.

We also visited the sandy, food-cart beach of Reffen last week as well. I finally ate a Danish hot dog and we managed to snag an almost-complete group photo, prior to covid causalities and playground trampoline incidents.

A group of us crashed a locals’ karaoke bar, which felt more like a concert, because everyone’s voices were incredible (covering Whitney-Mariah harmonization type good), but when we managed to sing the songs we selected, it was pretty fun. Byhaven Pumpehuset was a better time! The 90’s R&B and Hip Hop drew a few of us in, though a free dance party is invitation enough.  

June 28-30, 2023.

The second half of our first week our group went on bike tours with a different transportation or land use organization as a guide. Each guide led us through the city, along various infrastructure, and made stops to highlight relevant sites, design interventions, and to give context to new and old developments.

On Wednesday, we rode with Casper and Magnus from Raw Mobility, a traffic and engineering consultant group. They gave us an overview of various bike infrastructure elements, including a traffic garden for younger, emerging bicyclists to learn about road riding and safety. The traffic garden was in Faelledparken and features traffic lights, road signs and markers, bike paths, roundabouts and more.

Rasmus Frisk from Arki_Lab, an urban design and strategy consultancy, led us through Nørrebro on Thursday. Arki_Lab's work rests on three pillars: co-creation, democratic design, and a cross-disciplinary team. 

As part of his tour, I gained greater insight into the role and use of the courtyard and the optimization of shared space that still prioritizes people – as individuals and as a collective. Following this tour and after walking through the vast and pocketed courtyard in the 200-unit cooperative building that Ras calls home, I jokingly dubbed Copenhagen as the land of infinite nooks.

Within the shared courtyard there were several play areas for children, a small soccer field, multiple bike parking areas, tables and seating, recycling and trash, grilling areas, small lawns for gathering or curating activities, each with hedges or simple landscaping features to make them semi-privatized yet flowing into one another.  

Friday morning, we biked with Charlotte Algreen, an Architect and DIS instructor who focused on sustainable development. She took us to the newest development area of Nordhavn, a former industrial site, now home to hundreds of people – two large apartment buildings were nearing their final construction stages while we were onsite. I loved seeing the adaptation of former silos to office and residential buildings, as well as the playground and community space atop the 7-floor parking garage.

For Charlotte’s tour, we all scanned a QRC and logged into a Zoom meeting with audio only, which required us each to wear at least one headphone and allowed her to talk to us while we were riding. I really enjoyed this approach. We didn’t stop as often, but we were able to hear and see everything she was highlighting along the route. We were also made aware of upcoming turns, hazards, cute dogs, and small children who were also in the bike lane on their bikes. I felt as if someone was recounting me with a story that I was also actively part of. Pretty lovely!

More than once this week I heard a speaker suggest that the Danes promote active and healthy lifestyles by devoting and prioritizing space for whatever makes it easier for folks to choose the active thing. Meaning, a person bikes because it’s easier to bike, because the infrastructure is there, everywhere, the bike is there and it has the right away, the bike parking is there or there or there, the bus and train too, and they use the same pass, and allow you to bring your bike on board, the playground is in your neighborhood, on your roof, in the backyard, the courtyard…

June 26-28, 2023. 

I found 4 bikeshare operators in Copenhagen: Donkey Republic, Lime, Tier, and Bolt. All operators provided electric bikes, Donkey Republic has classic pedal bikes as well.  Here’s a one-sentence review of my initial rides.

Donkey Republic – “Rode e-bike, great ride, easy onboard, solid customer service.”

Tier – “Great ride, smooth, easy onboard, took 5 minutes to respectfully unbury from bike rack.”

Bolt – “Ridden twice, easy onboard, heavy af, slow to start from stop (you feel it), loudest bike over cobblestones.”

I don’t plan on riding the Lime e-bike since I’ve experienced them before back in the states. I haven’t ridden a Donkey Republic classic bike, but there’s still plenty of time.

What about scooters?

I have seen a few e-scooters, but not very many compared to the U.S. The same 10 Voi e-scooters have been sitting, untouched, at the same rack near the planetarium, by our hotel the entire week. I saw a person about to hop on a Lime e-scooter at Reffen; their friend was on a bicycle. I watched a guy load a personal scooter on to the train and a business man in a suit zip by (very very fast) on a narrow, shared pedestrian and bike trail in Amager Fælled (a former military site, now an active preserve). 

Other stuff

Most, if not all, hotels have private rental bikes that they loan to guests. They’re branded and you see them throughout the city. I also learned from a classmate, who has lived in Copenhagen previously, that most, if not all, taxis have bike racks on their vehicles. They can haul you and your bike. Very cool!

June 27, 2023.

Assignment: What did you learn about today?

I woke up to a windy Tuesday and wasn’t sure if I’d have the nudge of a tailwind or a headwind to fight against for 45 minutes. So, I choose an e-bike as an accomplice for the commute up to Denmark Technical Institute (DTU).

After a short walk along the separated pedestrian path surrounding the Sankt Jørgens Sø  lakes, I found a Donkey Republic electric-assist bike. There are a wealth more classic bikes than electrics in the city center. A simple QR scan and I was on my way – merging into the bike traffic at Dronning Louise Bro & Søtorvet, following the Cycle Superhighway for several miles. (There's also a bike counter at this corner, which tracks the daily and annual number of bicyclists crossing at this popular intersection). 

At DTU, several professors discussed their research and their students Ph.D. focus areas, including bike lane congestion using aggregate data shared from Hövding devices, the popular Danish bicycle airbag worn around the neck, as well as bike lane/roadway surface improvement research using data collected from bicycle lights.

 …

The thing about dockless bikeshare – or maybe bikeshare in general (less so with station-based systems, but still possible)— is that there is no guarantee that there will be a bike where you left it. It is, of course, a shared system. The bike moves when and where it’s needed.

All this to say, the Donkey Republic electric bike I rode out to campus was gone when our meeting ended a few hours later. DTU was far enough outside the city center –where classic and electric bikes from several bikeshare operators were clustered on every other corner— that I had to  find another way to our next meeting.

Fortunately, a classmate loaned me their transit pass. I caught the bus across the street from the university building and (with only one error) made my way to the closest train station. I took the Metro line to the Nørreport station near our DIS classroom.

A happy accident, a multimodal morning. I got to experience walking, biking, the bus (Movia), and a train (Metro). I also experienced the integrated platforms of Movia and Metro with a simple swipe of the transit pass on both vehicles.

Back at DIS, we heard from our faculty co-lead, Roger Geller, the Bicycle Coordinator at Portland Bureau of Transportation. He discussed PBOT’s Bikeway Design Principles and the priority list of road users, which has bicyclists at the top.

June 26, 2023. 

Our first true day of class consisted of three lectures and our initial foray as commuting cyclists on the city’s roadways and cycle tracks. We spent the morning collecting our rental bikes from a stubborn shop owner and then headed to our classroom at the Danish Institute for Study Abroad (DIS) located in the heart of the medieval city. We rode over to the Super Cykelstier offices near Havneparken and through Amager Fælled to the Metroselskabet offices in Ørestad. 

We heard from Neils Hoe of Hoe 360 Consulting, who gave us an overview about bicycling in Denmark. He also shared personal anecdotes about bike way + bike parking design projects and interventions – complicated and quick builds—that we should expect to see throughout our time here.

Second, we heard from Diana Bern Skyum from Super Cyckelstier about the five-finger cycling routes that prioritize bike commuter needs and connect the city center, on main corridors, to several suburban areas, and all the communities in between.  

Last, we heard from several folks from the Metroselskabet, Copenhagen's subway service, their team shared their approaches to bike parking at stations and in-train cars, the history of the system, the planned network expansion, as well as their future biodiversity initiatives and rider research. 

I most appreciated the quick and simple design solutions that Neils shared that aided bike commuters. Examples being, the asphalt ramps bridging the cycle tracks to the roadway at different junctions, smooth ramps along stairwells -- made with either stone or metal plates secured in place-- so bicyclists could easily ride or roll their bikes up or down, and the lean-to rests at stoplights and intersections. All of these projects were targeted at increasing convenience for bicyclists.

I was most surprised to learn about how much thought and consideration there is for bicycle parking -- providing enough space, in the right locations -- for the bicyclists and for the pedestrians, considering visual clutter, safety, security, volume, capacity, navigability, etc. 

June 25, 2023. 

I waited patiently near a rack of parked bikes for a shaded seat to turn over out front of Social Brew on the corner of Ved Vesterport & Vester Farimagsgade, near the Vesterport Train station. A constant flow of bicyclists, from every direction, passing in front of me. Each waiting on their raised and separated bike lanes for their traffic light to glow green – its white bike emblem a beacon for progress.

It’s no surprise that there are bikes everywhere. There are personal bikes buzzing by, bikes locked outside the train station, bikes parked outside the café, bikes on the racks of cars – patiently and closely waiting to turn behind the cyclists and pedestrians, bikeshare bikes propped on their kickstands, front loading cargo bikes -- classic and electric -- sometimes toting three people, boxy branded delivery bags on the back racks of bikes or mopeds (also riding the bike lane?), kids on their own bikes, kids carried on bikes.

Folks hauling each other, big bundles of flowers, shopping bags bound together in a basket, groceries resting beside a chatty child in the big bin between the bike's two front wheels. Most folks without helmets, some with headphones, or their phones in-hand, some wearing the black collars ready to inflate into airbags should they be jolted or jarred enough for protection to bubble out into action. Hardly anyone wearing a kit or spandex or angled aggressively. Handlebars often swept back, alsmot everyone upright and casual -– comfortable in their clothes and cadence.

June 23-24, 2023.

I bought the most expensive gin & tonic I’ve ever paid for at JFK awaiting my flight to Copenhagen, following a surprise embrace from my old college basketball coach, half blocking the moving walkway. It was fine, the drink. A man walked up beside me and bought a Voodoo Ranger; he repeatedly and loudly popped his chewing gum like a sassy schoolgirl. There’s an intimacy to airports and planes that isn’t ask for, but accepted.   

June 21, 2023

After spending the first few hours of the Summer solstice in the passport agency office in Chicago, I am grateful to be sitting outside near sunning petunias, at the corner of Dearborn & Ida B Wells, watching cyclists roll by in the two-way bike path across the street. I’m settling into the sureness of my trip to Denmark with a sigh of relief and an iced dirty chai. 

I could walk you through the process of scheduling an appointment for an urgent, non-emergency, same-day passport, and tell you how long the lines are, how many windows you’ll visit, whether the security guards jokes are funny, and the harmonies that are possible across crying, waiting children, but I cannot guarantee you my same luck. 

I have been fortunate to travel for work all Spring – visiting bikeshare colleagues in New York and Philadelphia, connecting in-person with the BBSP Living Lab Cohort in Chicago at the SUMC Conference after 2.5 years of online meetings, and participating in the NACTO Conference in Denver with the other Transportation Justice Fellows. But, I am especially excited to travel overseas to experience world-class transportation cities and garner all that they have to offer.

Thanks to the Devou Good Foundation (DGF) for sharing this opportunity with me and supporting my travels. DGF offers Active Transportation Training scholarships for Cincinnati & NKY professionals in the field, who are looking to cultivate their bicycling and pedestrian communities and expand their transportation toolkits. 

At home in Cincinnati, my work focuses on making bicycling and bike access more convenient and enjoyable. I do this through engagement, programs, partnerships, and activations in/with different communities. I think of myself as conduit or friend in the mode shift movement. With this time abroad in several bike-ped-transit forward cities, I hope to gain new ideas, approaches, resources, and tools to add to my practice of curating bike joy in a just multimodal network.