Click click click, the sounds of Copenhagen (Denmark Day 8)

We started the day with a visit to BLOXHUB to meet up with James Thoem of Copenhagenize for a presentation and bike tour. (Check out Copenhagenize on the socials for great info communicated clearly.) BLOXHUB seems to be a co-working space for different organizations that work on sustainable urbanisms. So, it totally made sense that James works out of there for this sort of meeting. It also had an interactive display that visualized bike and car movements and ratios in Copenhagen by year depending on how far away one stood from the display. 
First, we listened to a presentation about Copenhagenize's approach to thinking about urban spaces and movement. The biggest takeaway for me was to think of cyclists as fast-moving pedestrians. People on bikes move and behave more like people walking than driving. People on bikes are at risk of death or serious injury if they're hit by someone driving a car. In Copenhagen, the built transportation infrastructure reflects this knowledge.
After a bit of Q & A, we all made our way back down to our herd of bikes to take our tour. Honestly, it was the perfect tour to end on as we all had a week of experience biking around the city, a good idea of how to stay together as a large group, and James made sure we didn't lose anyone along the way. He told us our overall route, what we'd be seeing, and the next stop as we headed out.
The soundscapes of Copenhagen differ greatly from car-centric cities. People-centric cities use street space in such a way that car drivers can't speed down roads. It addresses one of the (many) problems that merely switching to electric cars can't solve--the noise pollution of tires moving across pavement. Without the constant barrage of sounds from fast cars, I could hear the heart of the city--the people. People talking. People walking. People playing. That and birds, lots and lots of very opinionated birds.
On the bike that day, since I finally felt comfortable with the flow, I heard the rhythm of the biking. It's quiet while everyone leans, stopped at the red light. The yellow-and-red light comes up and feet clack in near unison against the pedals. Then the click-click-click of shifting gears as they gain speed. The quiet whir of bike tires on pavement once they hit their stride. For those of us who haven't figure out the speed of the Green Wave (of lights), we see the yellow upcoming light and click-click-click of gears once again. It's a comfortable rhythm, a safe rhythm for going about my day.

Next up: Copenhagen to Svendborg, a shift

Random pic of the day: This pigeon eating berries on a tree. (The pigeon eventually succeeded.)

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