Tam On Transit

We had a day to rest and explore Odense on foot or wheel on Sunday. It offered a great opportunity to relax and experience a local event--a weekend flea market in the relatively new harbor neighborhood. To get there, we walked over to the relatively new cycle and pedestrian bridge. The stairs lead up to the bridge. The elevator didn't seem to be working. People could go up the sloped bike ramp as an alternative. The ramp is the piece to the right that goes out of frame and then looks like a fence at the bottom right of the frame. Once up on the bridge, it's clear that it has space for people going bike speeds and people going walking speeds. Easily interpreted infrastructure like this made walking feel safer. I didn't worry about a bike swerving around me. I also didn't worry about a car hitting me because cars aren't allowed on the bridge. It's incredibly quiet without car tires making a racket on the pavement. In light of my experiences in Copenhag...

When you look down at the ground between your feet, what do you see? I see values reflected in the choices that people made. Someone made a policy choice and/or a code manual decision that gets reflected in the everyday world design that we walk. For instance, drains need covers. Beyond covering the hole, bearing weight, and giving a bit of traction on what would otherwise be a slippery surface when wet, the look of drain covers comes down to values. Long-term infrastructure like drain covers don't necessarily reflect current values, but I wonder what influenced the people who decided to spiffy up their cities' grounds with designs.  As you might've noticed, I take pictures of such things. I especially took note in Copenhagen and Odense. Who had the strongest drain cover design game? Let's take a look**... First up, we have Copenhagen: A B + C D (and C style again) E And... Odense! F G H ...

We started the day with a class meeting at the park--on the Odense River itself. Two of the professionals that accompanied us on the trip shared about their career experiences and answered questions for this outdoor class session. Their insights into how they navigate the power dynamics of urban planning helped me think about ways that my position (as a doctoral student at a major US public university) comes with opportunities to bring a people-centered perspective to issues that matter in my city. Also, how the professionals manage to continue to do the work based in values in the current political climate made me think about why I do my work and in what ways it matters for me to be one of the ones in that work. I really appreciated their thoughtful and forthright answers. As we asked questions and listened to the answers, I noticed how the city planners had treated the Odense River as a public asset for living the good life. It reflected the thought behind cyc...