interaction Interaction with Mikael Colville- Andersen By THOMAS BARAKAT Policy & Advocacy, OGRA 6 / OGRA MILESTONES WINTER 2016
Mikael Colville-Andersen is one of the world s most influential voices on the ideas of community design. Compared to the legendary Jane Jacobs, Colville-Andersen passionately believes that life-sized communities make our communities better places to live and increase quality of life. He is the CEO of Copenhagenize Design Company, which he founded in 2009, and he works with cities and governments around the world in coaching them towards becoming more bicycle friendly. At the 2017 OGRA Conference, he will share his message with delegates. OGRA s Thomas Barakat set out to better understand Colville-Andersen prior to his address in February. OGRA MILESTONES WINTER 2016 / 7
Barakat: You ve been referred to as "the Modern Day Jane Jacobs", "the Richard Dawkins of cycling", "the Pope of urban cycling", and "the Bieber of urban cycling". Please explain to our readers why you ve been bestowed with such prolific titles. Colville-Andersen: I can't deny that I find it fascinating how many labels have been applied to describe what I do in my professional life. Earlier this year I was called the Bernie Sanders of urbanism and the Donald Trump of transport, which was a wonderful contrast. City development, urban planning and traffic engineering are traditionally areas dominated by an academic approach. Merely speaking/ thinking about them in another dialect and with a different tone is enough to cause a fuss, it seems. Academia can be dry, over-structured and inaccessible to a wider audience. I try to bring my urban thinking to a broader audience simply because I believe that everyone who lives in a city or town deserves to have influence on the development of the place. Citizen urbanists are the key to change. Voices from beyond the staid realm of academia are now being heard. If that means getting slapped with labels, so be it. We're thinking differently about our cities for the first time in a century. Let's get all hands on deck. Barakat: You ve claimed that every city used to be bicycle-friendly and that by moving back in that direction, We re just going back to the future. Is it simply a matter of restoring our cities to their preautomobile era forms or is there more to it in the 21st century? Colville-Andersen: Homo sapiens suffer from collective, short-term memory loss. The overwhelming dominance of car culture has caused us to forget that the bicycle was a primary transport form for decades, all over the world. We see more and more, all over the world, that we are moving back to the future. Not just regarding transport in the form of investment in intelligent, cost-efficient transport forms like the bicycle and trams, but in many aspects of urban development. We have lived together in cities for 7000 years. There is a wealth of experience to draw upon. Solutions that can be used as inspiration or direct implementation in the cities of the present and the future. Barakat: The Copenhagenize Design Company of which you are the CEO claims to approach every job from the human perspective. What does that mean and how does it translate into urban transportation policy? Colville-Andersen: After we invented the automobile we found it necessary to invent traffic engineering to go along with it, as a desperate way to try and control the machines we developed. What has happened is that engineering has been placed on a pedestal that it doesn't entirely deserve. We put too much weight on it and, in the process, forget other important disciplines. At Copenhagenize Design Co. we place anthropology at the top of the pyramid, followed by urban planning and urban design. By studying how the humans use the urban landscape and their behaviour, we can better plan our cities. It is much more effective than only relying on outdated computer models for motorised traffic. For 7000 years of urban democracy, the people using the urban space dictated the transportation policy however indirectly. We are returning to that once again. Barakat: Is cycling a viable mean of transportation in low density suburbs? Colville-Andersen: Densely-populated urban centres are absolutely the low hanging fruit in the modernisation of our cities. The bicycle enjoyed a transport dominance for decades and that included less urban settings. I grew up in a low density suburb in Calgary. I used my bike to get to school, to the store, to the tennis courts. We know that only 7% of cycling citizens in Copenhagen or Amsterdam ride more than 7 km per trip so it is important to 8 / OGRA MILESTONES WINTER 2016
interaction extensive traffic calming measures in place. Barakat: Why are North American cities more reluctant than their European counterparts to adopt cycling friendly policies? Is culture the biggest factor? Colville-Andersen: The pedestal that traffic engineering has been placed upon has been higher and shinier in North America than in Europe. We made the same mistakes but our tradition for placing equal weight on urban planning and design has avoided the dominance we see in North America. Your paradigm feels like it is carved in stone and focus on this transport anthropology fact. While we can't expect many people to ride far to work only the spandex-clad avid cyclists we can certainly create more attractive suburban environments. Using the bicycle as a tool for creating healthier, safer routes to schools and improving the health of our children and to traffic calm neighbourhoods to make them more pleasant for everyone. Barakat: The Ontario Good Roads Association (OGRA) takes its name after the Good Roads Movement. What do you consider to be a good road? Colville-Andersen: A good road is one on which nobody dies or gets hurt. Cyclists have protected infrastructure, pedestrians feel safe and have prioritised crossings and most importantly motorists have low speed limits and Your paradigm feels like it is carved in stone and is harder to shift. There is no bicycle culture anywhere. In Copenhagen and Amsterdam, people ride bicycles because it is simply the fastest way to get around, due to safe, protected infrastructure and a pragmatic approach to transport. is harder to shift. There is no bicycle culture anywhere. In Copenhagen and Amsterdam, people ride bicycles because it is simply the fastest way to get around, due to safe, protected infrastructure and a pragmatic approach to transport. We can move 5900 people per hour down a street with Best Practice bicycle infrastructure. Add to that 50,000 people a day on a tram or bus line. We can only move 1300 people per hour in a car lane. It's simple math. OGRA MILESTONES WINTER 2016 / 9
Barakat: In Canada, many point to the fact that cycling is not viable all year round as a result of the harsh winters. Copenhagen is no tropical paradise, but there seems to be no trouble getting people onto bicycles. Is cycling truly viable where there are harsh winters? Do Danes cycle less in the winter? Colville-Andersen: There are, on average, 350,000 people riding bicycles daily for transport in Copenhagen. Seventyfive percent of the population ride all winter. When you have a protected network of bicycle infrastructure, you maintain it. Cycle tracks are the first infrastructure to get cleared of snow in the winter. Cycling is still the quickest way to get around. Cities like Oslo, Stockholm, Oulu (Finland) all enjoy rising winter ridership. The annual Winter Cycling conference (Feb 8-10, 2016 in Montreal this year) shows a growing interest in year-round cycling and cities share their experiences of how to make that possible. Barakat: Is it possible to change cycling culture in a city? Has Cycling Chic helped make cycling more popular? Colville-Andersen: We changed once already. When the bicycle was invented it transformed human society faster and more effectively than any other invention in human 10 / OGRA MILESTONES WINTER 2016
history. It improved the gene pool. It liberated the working classes and women for the first time. Our mental dependence on automobiles is a tough nut to crack, but we have the knowledge and the tools. Apart from building Best Practice bicycle infrastructure networks and taking the bicycle seriously as transport once again, it is important to wrest cycling from the grips of the sporty sub-cultures, who have owned it for a few decades. We have to sell urban cycling as the normal, modern transport form that it used to be. The Cycle Chic movement helped accelerate the move to bring back cycling to the 99% and show that it is something for everyone. Colville-Andersen: I want to highlight that our cities are organic creatures and not carved in engineering stone. We can transform them for the better. We can use the most important tool in our urban toolbox the bicycle in order to do so. The world is shifting the paradigm that we were locked into for the past century. We are now changing, evolving and developing quickly. There are amazing things happening around the world. Things the right politician in the right city or town can be inspired by. The momentum is building. All the cool kids are getting into it. We need more rational visionaries on board. Perhaps some of them will be in the room at the conference. Barakat: You will be addressing delegates at the 2017 OGRA Conference. What is the single most important message that you normally deliver to municipal leaders when you speak to them? There are, on average, 350,000 people riding bicycles daily for transport in Copenhagen. Seventy-five percent of the population ride all winter. When you have a protected network of bicycle infrastructure, you maintain it. OGRA MILESTONES WINTER 2016 / 11