Copenhagenizing Paris
copenhagenize.com
copenhagenize.com
> Best Practice has been established. It's ridiculous to try and reinvent the wheel.
> It's simple if Paris wants it to be.
If the author thinks that the understanding of "Best Practice" is substandard, maybe he should post a link to what he means, instead of leaving the term undefined and then acting smug about it.
Googling "Best Practice bicycle" returns a number of documents from different cities. It's unclear which of these (if any) correspond to the author's idea of "best practice" for cycling infrastructure.
I did find a post by the same author (http://www.copenhagenize.com/2013/04/the-copenhagenize-bicyc...) which advertises itself as a "planning guide", but is actually just a poster made by someone who was apparently more interested in graphic design than in actually conveying information.
And btw, we French don't have a bicycle culture. For us every day bicycling (not sport) is for people that can't afford a car (and the rare idealists that think they're going to save the planet).
I'm always amazed at the number of bikes I see when I go in Germany or Holland (never went to Denmark). It's not a matter of money, they are richer than us, it's really cultural.
If you really want to see more bicycles on French roads you need gas to be at about 2€ / liter (Google says it's about 8 bucks for a gallon).
On the metro it's easy to waste 20 minutes just on the extras — walking to/from the station, inside the stations, waiting for the trains. Each of these things takes just a few minutes because the stations are close and the trains run often, but few+few+few so easily =30, particularly if you have to change trains.
The incentive is not only on gas price, but on the whole experience, where the environment/infrastructure play a lot. Architecture governs.
When moving/parking your car is slow, complex, expensive, whereas using a bike (be it powered or not), public transportation or your feets is not, depending on your travel, the choice is quickly made.
Some cities are rearchitecting around this whole experience. Paris, Nantes (for those I know well) have been doing this for several years already, and it's a long, painful process for everyone and every business, but that definitely feels like a good thing.
I don't get the "enjoyable" part. Maybe it's because I live in the country, but the thought of taking deep breaths in an environment saturated with car exhausts would stop me.
I commute by bike everyday, 10 km, in a medium city in the french alps. Every single day I encounter a situation where I am concretely in danger. French drivers suck and simply don't care about bike riders.
When you ride a bicycle in Berlin or Tokyo you truly sense what it's like to be actually considered, and it changes all your interface with the city!
Have you been to Strasbourg recently? There's definitely a bicycle culture there...
Yet!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copenhagenization_(naval)
"Copenhagenization refers to the practice of confiscating the warships of a defeated enemy."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cycling_advocacy#Copenhageniza...
"Copenhagenization is a design strategy in which urban planning and design are centered on making a city more accessible to bicyclists and pedestrians, and less car dependent"
I think we can be sensible and infer that they mean the latter, and not some obscure 19th century naval terminology for confiscating ships, and therefore no offence intended.
in the future we have less space per person as there are more people, and politically no-one really wants to talk about population growth or demographics (unless they want to encourage people to breed faster).
the car is obviously superior to the bicycle for the reasons you state, it is also obviously inferior in terms of environmental damage.
They also significantly reduce the life expectancy of the other humans in the city, directly (via accidents) or indirectly (via pollution)
It seems to be a good idea to try and limit car usage as much as possible, and doing that implies making other alternatives, such as bike, more practical and pleasant.
Again, this is speaking for dense urban area like Paris. Maybe things are different were you live.
also for humans: nitpicking at silly language, humour, reclaimed wood tables, mime, tax loss harvesting, cluster bombs, mirin, brown-coal-fueled power stations, group theory, punctuation, losing the main thread of conversation.