http://www.streetsblog.org
(Note: I need to have a second look at the site)
Copenhagen, Denmark is not a natural bicycling city. In the early 1960's it was very much of a car town. In 1962 the city created its first pedestrian street, the Stroget, and every year since then Copenhagen has allocated more and more of its public space to bicycles, pedestrians and people who just want to sit and take a load off. The result is a remarkably pleasant city. Danish urban designer Jan Gehl says that the single biggest key to the change has been the development of the city's extensive bicycle network and that the Copenhagen of great public spaces that we see today would not be possible without bicycles.
Indeed, there are bikes everywhere. Thirty-six percent of Copenhageners commute by bicycle. It's an astonishing number considering that this isn't exactly Miami Beach. It is cold and rainy for much of the year. The city is, however, extraordinarily flat.
Except for young children, hardly anybody wears a bike helmet. Young children do get around the city by bike, usually accompanied by a parent. There is currently some debate about helmets underway and a local group is pushing helmet legislation. Gehl's concern with a helmet law is that it might discourage people from hopping on a bike and running an errand. The city's goal is to get its cycling mode share up to 40 percent in the next few years.
It turns out that wide, busy thoroughfares, the favorite routes of motorized traffic, are also some of the very best biking roads. It turns out that cars and bikes pretty much want to do the same thing -- go fast and straight for long stretches without having to stop and start lots of times. People seem to ride their bikes fast and with extraordinary confidence that no car or truck is going to open a door or hang a right turn into their path. Moving at my slow, careful New York City riding speed I had Danish moms passing me hauling two kids and groceries. Which brings me to the next observation: People have all kinds of different bikes and they use them for everything; carrying two kids, delivering mail, hauling shopping bags and large pieces equipment. In one of his speeches, Jan Gehl, who used this conference as his retirement party, said, "every Copenhagener must have two bikes; one for the rain and a nice one as well."
Again and again I saw bicycles in the space that, in New York City, we would give to parking. This really seems to be where the ultimate choice lies when it comes to building a strong urban bicycle infrastructure. Do we want a city with abundant curbside parking that invites people to drive their cars into the city, or do we want a city where people can get around by bicycle? Forty-five years ago the City of Copenhagen made their choice. Slowly but surely, every year since then, the amount of land dedicated to parking space in the city center has been reduced, 2 or 3 percent annually, according to Gehl. The changes have continued because people continue to enjoy the results. Are the residents and merchants of Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens ready to give up some of their on-street parking for better bike (and bus and ped) facilities? I wonder.
There are all kinds of different bike lanes. The lane below is marked off by little green LED lights running along this stretch with no overhead streetlights (see the close-up).
TOI report:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Pune/Pune_leaves_mark_on_Khardung-La/articleshow/2385216.cms
20 Sep 2007, 0513 hrs IST
PUNE: Twenty avid cyclists from Pune, once considered the city of bicycles, recently pedalled on the world’s highest motorable road from Leh to Khardung-La and back at 18,350 ft above sea level.
With six doctors and two students in the group, the cycle rally was part of a medical conference at Leh, organised jointly by the Pune and Faridabad societies of obstetrics and gynaecology in the first week of September.
Inspired by a message from President Pratibha Patil wishing ‘good health and success’, the cyclists also pedalled 434 kms from Leh and Srinagar, braving hostile terrain and cold winds.
Other members of the team, which included retired Wing Commander Yashvant Marathe (76) and Vasanti Joshi, are all from the Pune Cycle Pratisthan, which was formed in August 1998 to promote pedalling for a clean environment and better and healthy living.
For any mountaineer, scaling the Mt. Everest is the ultimate goal. For a cyclist, pedalling to Khardung La is the same like climbing the Mt. Everest," Dilip Sarda, a founder-member of the pratisthan and part of the group said.
Marathe said, "While this is not the first time that people have pedalled to Khardung-La, as some foreigners visiting the area carry their bicycles up to Khardung La, and then pedal down the slope, ours was probably the first expedition where a group pedalled from Leh to Khardung-La and back."
The rally was aimed at creating awareness about women’s health, and more specifically eradicating anaemia, besides removing bias against females, said Shirish Patwardhan — the organising chairperson and president of the society.
"The second phase of the rally, during which the group covered a distance of 434 kms from Leh and Srinagar on bicycles, passed through Alchi, Lamayaru, Kargil, Drass and Sonmarg," Patwardhan said.
"Places like Kargil and Drass had seen thick military action during the 1999 conflict," Marathe said, adding that with a night halt at each of the above stops, the cycling "through a hostile terrain of Karakoram, Zanskar and Himalayan ranges, with high winds and undulating road at 11,000 ft" was completed on September 8 noon.
"Besides the freezing temperature, we had to scale a continuous upward gradient at the Zojilla pass, which is located at 11,000 ft above sea level."
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