With a fantastic group of 5 other UC Berkeley city planning grad students (and fellow graduates), I had an exciting week in Copenhagen. As a group we met folks from Gehl Architects, the City's Department of Traffic & Infrastructure, as well as the Department of Environmental Sustainability. It was super cool hearing about how the City works, especially how they actually get things done--they think of ways to improve their streets, canals, etc, and then they do it! If it works, they make it permanent and set up a system that will usher success. What a concept. Like trying out a 3-meter wide bike lane before putting in the cycle track; or benches that are perpendicular to the street, facing each other, so people can sit and enjoy each other's company instead of looking at the traffic. I'm not saying they get things done without conflict or resistance; but somehow, through consensus-building, impact analyses, research, and convincing powerpoint presentations, these people know how to make change.
Although one week sounds like a good chunk of time to spend in one city, it still wasn't enough. In my small sample size of a week, I came up ten reasons to become Danish...
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| The Crew at Gehl Architects: Me, Matt, Erin, Erik, Jordan, Lisa |
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| The Copenhagen raised 6' cycle track: heaven. |
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| View of the Stroget pedestrian street from Hay House |
Although one week sounds like a good chunk of time to spend in one city, it still wasn't enough. In my small sample size of a week, I came up ten reasons to become Danish...
