An interview with Mikael Colville-Andersen

Mikael Colville-Andersen has been dubbed the ‘rock star of urbanism’, 'the modern day Jane Jacobs' and the man who 'launched a million bicycles’. Simply, he’s a dude who loves moving around his city by foot and by bike, and he wants people across the globe to share that same enjoyment.

I recently chatted with Mikael about Copenhagenize Design Company, how neighbourhoods can become more people-oriented, and the current progress towards - what he calls - 'life-sized cities', across both the northern and southern hemispheres.

A few insights from his work around the globe include:

• "Cities in China... they embraced the automobile over the past 15 years and now they're paying the price for that. Now Shanghai is putting in Copenhagen-style cycle-tracks. The Chinese can do that."
• "India... they still don't know what they're doing."
• "When you have Paris just in the course of 12 years... putting in infrastructure, bike share, traffic calming, taking out some expressways along the river. There's people who are doing it and as soon as you have a big city doing it - other cities will follow."
• "Australian cities are farther behind than any other city in the industrialised world... When there are American cities ahead of you in terms of bicycle infrastructure - you suck. You suck really bad!"

Giving us some idea about what's in store for the future, Mikael tells us that he will soon be heading back into the world of film making. This time however, he has a message to spread. And this time, he will be on the other side of the lens.

Check out the full interview below.

Cycling Superhighways Take Off

​LA's 1892 private Cycling Superhighway. Source: Motherboard

Cycling superhighways are nothing new. Even LA, one of the most congested, car-dominated cities in the world had schemes to implement this idea all the way back in the 1890s. The idea is simple. A Cycling Superhighway is a cycle path wide enough and safe enough for everyone, regardless of age, gender, physical ability or cycling skills, to be able wherever they want and whenever they want. Different to the Dutch-style segregated lanes that are popping up in inner areas of NYC, London and Sydney, Superhighways act to transport high capacities of people moving at different speeds, into the inner city. Much like an arterial road serves a collector road, a Cycling Superhighway serves a lower capacity traditional bike path.

One of ​London's new Barclays Superhighways. Source: London24

The Netherlands and Denmark have adopted Superhighways in a big way, and now the trend seems to be spreading global. London has been hard at work installing the first of 12 Barclays Superhighways, and has recently just unveiled its 15 miles (24 km) “Bicycle Crossrail”. Similarly, Bogota in Colombia has created the CicloRuta, a 300 km network of 3-4 metre wide bi-directional protected cycles highways across the city, linking with pedestrian boulevards. 

Resistance to Cycle Superhighways has been fierce in London, but its benefits are unquestionable. Not only do they improve the health of commuters and provide relief in congestion on roads, but they also provide relief to high-capacity rail networks. London's first Superhighway was installed to relive congestion on the Tube's Northern Line. In addition to all of this, research has demonstrated that cycle paths not only increase the value of adjacent houses, but also local business trade. It’s no wonder local authorities are trying to see how they can adopt this model as quickly as possible.

One of the many Cycling Superhighways in Copenhagen. Source: Creative Commons: Flickr/grapfapan

Would free internet on public transport keep you happy?

On recent visits to European cities I'm now seeing far more of something than I did two or three years ago. That something is free internet on public transport, from wifi on buses in Copenhagen to wifi on the London underground. ​This is mainly a product of our increasingly digital lives and the desire to be 'connected' at all times. People want to be able to use their commute time to do business, email colleagues, connect with friends via social media, or just be entertained with videos, music and other media. But does this mean it should be free? Does the City have an obligation to provide this service for commuters? If so, why not just go all out and provide free public transport? (This seems a slightly absurd idea, but it's actually something currently being trialled in Tallinn, Estonia). What does the City gain from a scheme like this?

Free bus internet, ​Copenhagen - Image courtesy of Billy Haworth

There is probably an argument for the environment and climate change, with cities wanting to reduce the impact of auto-mobiles. But researching a little into the cities providing this service leads to the conclusion that the main drive behind free internet on public transport is customer satisfaction. Trials, surveys and pilot programs have been undertaken in a number of cities (E.g. Lisbon, Rome, Copenhagen, Dublin) with results all emphasising the need to improve passenger's travel perception. 

Scotland's Transport Minister said of Scotland's train wifi program:
“A major challenge for the transport industry is embracing new technologies to meet the demands of passengers and help them get on with their ever more busy lives while travelling. It is essential that people throughout Scotland have online access to enable our economy to thrive".

Danish rail company DSB state that free internet allows the train driver to continuously monitor various aspects of the trains performance and passengers to log on using laptops and smart phones, but outline being able to provide passengers with up to date information as the most beneficial outcome:
"The state-owned rail operator decided to equip all metropolitan S-trains in Denmark’s capital Copenhagen with wireless internet after a study revealed that real-time traffic information was the number one request among its daily 220,000 passengers". 

rom the City's point of view it seems the main reason for free internet on public transport is to keep the citizens happy, and isn't that the City's main obligation? Perhaps with our modern digital lifestyle's free internet should be provided by the City. I'm not willing to go as far as saying it's their obligation, but I do think this trend will continue and more cities will be expected to offer free public transport wifi to keep their citizens 'happy'. Although, it seems this isn't what every citizen wants, and I'll leave you now with a quote from an online-commenter on Scotland's railway internet.

"Is there no escape. First it was idiots barking in brick-sized cellphjones in the 80s, then phones beep beeping all the time as TTTXXTTSS were snt 2 ol nd sndry ol t bldy tm, now we have computers being tap tapped, music played on them and always more noise. long haul flights used to be an oasis of calm but now they can use their phones and computers you might as well be at work. take a seat, look out the window, read the paper, chat to your fellow passengers, never mind Twitterbook, Face thingy or any of that antisocial netowrk rubbish, GET A LIFE"