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copenhagenize -the definitive guide to global bicycle urbanism. miael colville-andersen. island press softback, 275pp illus.£19.99

"why did the engineer cross the road? because that's what he did last year."

copenhagenize - mikael colville-andersen

i have ridden along the eight mile stretch of straight road leading from bowmore to port ellen, taking me past the airport and the still-under-construction, revamped machrie hotel and golf links. as ever in these parts, there's been a headwind, but as i turn at right angles with the intention of retracing my steps, but along the high road, i realise that the breeze in my face was probably the tailwind. it would be another mile or so into port ellen village, but avoiding this southern conurbation, i am now pointing in the direction of bridgend, ten miles north.

the high road is arguably the more picturesque means of moving between the central and southern islay villages; where the low road is pan flat, arrow straight, the high road meanders just a little and has more of a rolling lope to its vector. not so many visitors use this route on first acquaintance, but many of the island's trucks do, the meeting of which provides gainful employment for the many passing places peppered along the edges. in this case, i meet none of the above, but as i near the glen road turn-off, two cars pass from behind, close enough together to allow me to roll through a passing place and out the other end with scarcely a blip in my trajectory.

however, realising that this ease of passage is probably far too good to be true, the two cars only a short distance ahead, meet with one driving in the opposite direction. faced with this convoy of two, the vehicle pulls into a passing place to allow them to continue unhindered, yet though i am but five or six car lengths behind, the driver than pulls out onto the roadway and forces me to step aside.

this is when i am inconveniently reminded that bicyclists are still second class citizens.

however, let's face facts; my saturday morning bike ride, aboard particularly luxurious ritchey steel and sporting italian running gear, is but a poseur's fancy. i'm not training for any specific event, i do not have to be anywhere in particular at any pre-arranged time and in essence, i'm just out enjoying myself. so having to pull over to appease faster traffic is a minor irritation, probably only engineered to offer subject matter for book reviews such as this.

but what if that were not the case? what if my journey was every bit as important and necessary as those in their metal boxes? what if i'd arranged an important meeting and this constant requirement to bow to the greater good (so to speak), had already made me uncomfortably late?

to a certain degree, everyone figures their own daily travail to be of greater import than that of their fellow man or woman, but multiply the above scenario by many hundreds of cars and bicycles and the potential for conflict, inconvenience, cost and dispossession increases exponentially. in short, it's very probably why individuals like author mikael colville-andersen exist in the first place. those of you who read, enjoyed and were appeased by carlton reid's 'roads were not built for cars', will already have a good idea of where mr colville-andersen is coming from.

he is the founder of and chief strategist for copenhagenize design which, since 2009 has worked with towns and cities across the world, helping them initiate, design and optimise their bicycle transportation strategy, something sadly lacking in the rural idyll of argyll and bute.

the remit of copenhagenize design can be as simple as designing a poster for merseyside rail ("if you rode a bike, you'd be there by now") or pulling in staff from all three world office locations (copenhagen, brussels and montreal) to design a state-of-the-art, state oil funded, bicycle infrastructure for the city of almetyevsk in the semi-autonomous russian state of tatarstan.

the difference in available cycling facilities between countries, states or cities can be as simple as those with the purse-strings getting it; being aware that, as the author makes plain in chapter 16 ('Prioritising Cycling'), "...there is one question regarding transport that needs to be changed first. [...] 'How many cars can we fit down this street?' [...] Let's ask instead, how many people we can move down a street?"

colville-andersen has the benefit of being a man earnestly tasked with improving the lot of the city-bound cyclist, but unlike those who do so from a purely activist base, his credentials and experience make him an individual to whom policy makers are inclined to listen. however, as head of a business whose livelihood depends often on successful negotiation at the upper levels of government and a high degree of pragmatism, to an extent he is dependent on being asked to comment in the first place. it is notable that the uk does not feature frequently in the examined case studies across the book's twenty chapters.

few of us will be at all surprised to learn that, by and large, the uk still doesn't 'get it'. at least not on the scale of many examples shown in mainland europe, russia and north and south america.

there is a temptation to view copenhagenize as a beautifully and colourfully illustrated, coffee table business card. the author details many successful projects across the world, frequently referencing his own company's involvement; how they acquired or interpreted data, or how their studied insight solved the apparently unsolvable. but the book's tone is a far cry from the 'look at me' narrative that could have been justifiably presented. the man's passion applied to what he does for a living, shines on every page; there is justifiable poo-pooing of lame attempts to pacify the city cyclist with poorly conceived infrastructure, but often a correspondingly cogent argument as to how a better solution could have been implemented.

or was.

there's no doubt that, once again, this is one of those books that, it could be argued, is preaching to the converted. expecting the die-hard motorist to voluntarily read from end to end while deciding which bicycle to purchase as a result, is surely akin to having turkeys vote for christmas. however, if the activist in you needs satiated, why not buy a copy and send it to the head of town planning at your local council? after you've read it, of course. in order that cycling may become mainstream in the uk (or any part of the world for that matter), for every one of us on skinny wheels and bendy bars, there needs to be at least six others who don't care who chris froome is, but want a practical, clean and economic way to get from a to b.

when (not if) that happens, we'd better hope that our government and city officials are as in thrall to the ideas contained within copenhagenize as we need them to be. aside from which, the cover is as well-designed as all the bicycle infrastructure featured within.

wednesday 16 may 2018

twmp ..........................................................................................................................................................................................................