Cycling in Valbyparken

Close to my home is a nice big park that never seems to be crowded even during the best summer weekends. I often take either a walk or a ride on my bicycle through it, enjoying the different parts of it, from manicured rose gardens to wild nature. This little time lapse show one of the rides I usually opt for when I need a bit of air and exercise.

Where to put the bicycle...or not

 

Yesterday I showed you one parking solution for the bicycles of Copenhagen. This is another one, albeit probably not an approved one. Placing you bike where everyone has to squeeze pass it with prams, shopping backs and the like, will certainly earn you some nasty remarks.

 

Stacking the bicycles

 

Parking is a problem in Copenhagen, not only for cars but for bicycles as well. This is one, maybe impractical solution from Ørestaden.

 

Not a UFO

 

On my way to work I often see this one going at speed down the bicycle lane. And it is a kind of bicycle though more streamlined than most. Perfect for rainy days, I guess, but I'm not sure how comfortable it is.

 

Dogs and bicycles

 

Copenhagen is renowned for its bicycle culture, and with more bicycles in the city than people, traffic jams are not only evident in the streets with cars, lorries and buses. It's also a problem on the bicycle lanes during rush hour. People here seems to be transporting anything possible on their bikes; groceries and kids are high on the list, but even man's best friend seems to enjoy a ride.

Are we anarchists?

 

 

With the renovation of the Nørreport Station in central Copenhagen the many bicycles there pose quite a problem as they're placed everywhere. And it certainly doesn't help that a large portion of the bicyclists seem to have an anarchistic streak in them. To many Danes seem very ordered and regulated but this is one instance where many of us couldn't care less about order and others, as long as we can leave our bicycle as close to the station as possibly.

 

A bike called Winther

When winter hits Copenhagen the number of people using their bicycles drop the first few days, until the bicycle lanes are clear and dry again.

How to mark your bicycle

With thousands of bicycles being stolen each year in Copenhagen, many try to make sure their two-wheeler is not among them. You can lock it with multiple locks of the heavy kind, you can use a very old rusty one or you can make sure your bike stand out in the crowd. This one is even easy to find among the hundreds of other bikes at Nørreport Station.

A third bridge under way

A third bridge across the harbour of Copenhagen is under way. When it and the two other smaller bridges are finished in 2013, it will be possibly to cross the harbour on foot or on bicycle from Nyhavn to the Opera. The placement of these bridges has been the cause of much debate, mainly from the boating people that fear that their movement will be impeded.

Tour of Denmark

Sunday the bicycle race Tour of Denmark ended with a run-up through the streets of Frederiksberg in Copenhagen. These events in the streets has been on the rise in the last few years and the citizens of Copenhagen are getting more and more used to them and the closed streets and redirected public transport. And the planners are getting better at informing about and planning the events. The speed of the bicycle race did seem to surprise this member of the homeguard's police division, as she had to jump out of the way of the peloton.

Bike parking

Nørreport station is currently undergoing a major renovation. It is the busiest train station in the country, serving 165,000 people daily. The rebuilding will take place between 2011 and 2014.

While this is happening the streets around the station has been closed of to traffic and parking has been made for bicycles as this photo shows.

-RS

Bicycles everywhere!

One of the things Copenhagen is known for is its positive attitude towards cyclists. There are many bicycle-only roads and every station or public area has parking for bicycles.

This photograph was taken in the centre of the city near Gammelholm.

Taking precautions

The one downside of living in Copenhagen is bicycle theft. I know of very few people who have not had their bicycles stolen.

This store owner is taking no chances with this demonstration item! Even though it is near Nørreport station and quite high up on the building the store has had several attempts at theft.

-RS

Standing out from the crowd

In a city where there are almost three bicycles for each inhabitant people go to extremes to ensure they stand out from the crowd. This lady's bicycle is painted yellow and decorated with flowers and certainly makes a change from the ordinariness of some.

Today's word is "cykel" which means bicycle. -RS

An airbag for bicyclists

The Copenhagen Design Week also features an award for the best design called Index: Award. The winner of the PLAY category was Hövding (Swedish for chief) which was an airbag for bicyclists. And with the bicycle Road Race World Championship in Copenhagen this week, they should have ample change for testing it in the real world.

White Elephant

The elephants can be used for many things. Here as a place to put your bicycle...

Looking

Dyrehaven is used by both deer and humans, but who's looking at who?

A law-abiding tricyclist

In the last couple of weeks I've shown you a bunch of photos of bicyclists in Copenhagen, that didn't think the rules of traffic applied to them. Fortunately there's still a lot of law-abiding bicyclists here, so even though all of those photos was taken during a single hour, it was at one of the busiest places in Copenhagen and scores of other bicyclists went by while doing nothing wrong at all. This lady on her tricycle with flowers was one of those last.

For my next posts I'll leave Copenhagen for a while and show you some of the places that I've visited this summer.

Another one

Another young man in Copenhagen on a bicycle that is obviously not built for him. With cell phone in hand and headphones covering the ears, he might have some trouble reacting to the traffic around him.

Not only youngsters

It's not only young people in Copenhagen, that has little respect for the traffic laws. Many elderly ones also seem to think, that the rules don't apply to them.