Apropos biking, Copenhagen is apparently the third best biking city in the world.
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This is Binary Bonsai, the online journal of Michael Heilemann — a Danish expat Interface Director at Squarespace, ex-Computer Game Developer and Film Lover — coming to you out of New York. It contains thoughts on games, interface design, movies, books, science fiction, Star Wars and various other subjects as befits the author, who is available for comment on Twitter.
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Nope. That must be Münster, Germany :D
Having lived in Portland, Oregon and born in Copenhagen, I have to say that I strongly disagree with Portland being more bicycle friendly than Copenhagen.
Some of those criteria seem more useful if you are an anti-car-pro-regulation-politics type, than if you actually want to know where it is easiest and safest to ride a bicycle.
I don’t care about encouragement, planning and political bodies. That doesn’t make it more attractive or safe to ride a bike. There are a lot more people riding bikes in Copenhagen than in Portland. They might exist, but I don’t even think I can remember seeing a dedicated bicycle lane in central Portland at all! In Copenhagen bike-lanes are everywhere.
As a matter of fact, a friend from Portland who went to Copenhagen to study for a few months in the summer, loved riding the bike around in Copenhagen. But as far as I remember, she said it would be more dangerous to do in Portland.
Doh! No Minneapolis on that list. Oh wells.
I think don’t think the list is very accurate but I’m sure Copenhagen really is bicycle friendly as I have spent a lot of time there and seen how friendly it is to go bicycle there. I, however, thought Stockholm or Gothenburg would score better than it did. Surprised.
European cities are always more biker friendly then American. It really boils down to the society and culture… America is such a fast paced world it is often scary to ride a bike in certain cities.
Lynne