Aidan Bikes in Europe!

Heads up, this post might get a little technical. Copenhagen's infrastructure has so much to it. (probably more so than I will be able to explain). In this post, I hope to highlight the key pieces of infrastructure that I noticed throughout my time in Copenhagen. I had initially thought that (because of how many bikes there are) there would be few cars on the road and many bikes on the street. Yet, I was surprised to find that is not the case. The amount of cyclists on the road is equal to (if not a little more than) cars. Copenhagen's City Center is set up so cars have to pass through it in many instances. Therefore, there are some roads that are 4 or 5-lane (as wide as some of the roads in Eugene, such a Franklin Blvd, for those who are familiar with that area).  However, as I have mentioned in previous posts, one thing that makes Copenhagen stand out so much is its bike lanes (or cycle tracts). They are on almost every road. Even though they parallel the car asphalt, they ar...

I found Copenhagen's regional bike network to be one of the more fascinating aspects of the city. While practically every city street in Copenhagen is suitable for bikes, cycle superhighways are what take most people from the city to the outside.  When I first heard the word 'Cycle Superhighway' I was thinking of back at home in Portland, where the only real 'safe' regional bike networks are dedicated bike paths (the Springwater trail in Portland or the riverfront path in Eugene). This is because I had felt these are one of the only places where bikes can safely zoom along. In fact, I had not realized that the road one block next to the hostel is one of the cycle superhighways (route  C75 ). One reason I did not realize this was because (at least in the city) the superhighways look just like the other bike lanes in the city (however I later found out the cycle superhighways have a 'C' decal on the bike lane and a few other features that I will list later). ...

Yesterday we had an amazing opportunity to visit Gehl Architects. I had seen the word 'architect' and thought this visit wouldn't be something I would be interested in. In reality that is far from the truth. Ghel uses a combination of not only architects, but urban planners, designers, social scientists, and more to create (what they call) 'Cities for People.' I walked out of that session blown away by everything I just learned. I will try to circle back to just exactly what I learned in one of my future posts, but for now I wanted to focus on infrastructure for kids in Copenhagen.  One thing that Ghel emphasized was designing at the right scale.  I set to go find that for myself. I visited 5 playgrounds in the neighborhoods surrounding my hostel. Most of them were not hard to find at all. They were all filled with kids, voices who could be heard from blocks away. It reminded me of recess when I was that age. Compared to the parks back in Portland where I grew up, ...

I’ve officially been here for a week (while the class didn't formally start until Thursday, I got in two days early). Writing this post made me realize I have already done so much. From doing things with the class, such as a guided tour, scavenger hunt, talking with an apartment owner about where they live,  to learning about the bicycle superhighway network, seeing a cute place where kids learn to ride bikes, learning about what the 3 transportation professionals coming along with us think about all of this, (plus exploring around the city on my own, and more that I can't list here) it's been a lot!  With that, I have started to come up with some questions. The one question I’m dying to know is: right turn on red : if you are on a bike, is a right turn on red legal? I have seen so many conflicting views about this I’m just not sure anymore. Out in the real world it seems like people just ‘go for it’ anyways.  Google suggests it might be illigal for cars but legal for bik...

After a long day of flying, I finally arrived at Copenhagen airport on Tuesday afternoon. This gave me a day and a half to informally check out the city before the official study abroad program began.   I am not sure how much I will be able to write here, but I do want to say that my mind has been blown. I am not sure if I will be able to incorporate everything in here, but I guess we will see how it goes. First of all, my train from the airport. I was going to take the metro but accidentally bought myself a ticket for the regional rail instead. Luckily I later found out this option is faster and more direct. However, getting into Copenhagen was an interesting experience. My train showed up a few minutes late (no big deal), but one stop down the line the conductor came on and said that a fight had broken out on the train, so they had to call the police etc.   Before I had even stepped foot in the city I had an interesting experience. Honestly, all things considered, they clear...

  I can’t believe this trip is right around he corner! Just a few days ago I was in (what seemed to) be a never-ending cycle of being a student on campus. It is nice to finally be able to break away from that and to shift all of my attention towards my awesome study abroad class that is upon me!   Anyways. In terms of hopes and aspirations… if I were to sum it up into one sentence I guess you could say that I want to ‘understand the hype’ about what bikes are really like. I love riding bikes already. I was an occasional bike rider at home, and when I started my first year of school in Eugene, I got completely hooked on the bikeshare system that is offered for practically free (called PeaceHealth rides). While I have been to Europe already, I really have spent no time biking around. When I visited Japan years ago for an exchange/research trip, one of my favorite things was navigating around via bikes in a very remote town in Japan. I noticed so many things that were different a...

Before I begin posting about content ON the trip, I want to talk about what I did before leaving for Europe.   Our pre-class assignment consisted of 3 options, Data Collection, reading, or YouTube videos. I had already done a lot of data collection for the LiveMove (an on-campus student group focused to transportation), so I decided to go with the YouTube video option. (another reason I chose this option was so I could get a sense of what to look forward to!) Before watching the videos, I came up with a list of questions (stuff to look out for). Most of these questions asked how the cycling abroad compares to the US, and how they vary between the two countries. I also wanted to know more about the safety and history of the infrastructure. Luckily, there is no shortage of videos about biking abroad. I ended up watching several videos about bikes in Denmark, bikes in the Netherlands, and even some videos that directly compared the two.   The biggest thing that most of the videos...