While wandering through Copenhagen, I remembered an observation from UBC urban design professor Patrick Condon: There is a neighbourhood in the city, unique in form, that shows how density can be accommodated in a very friendly way. Something about potatoes.
And sure enough:
Street Of The Week No. 8: Copenhagen’s Potato Rows
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Streets for people is the name of the game in Copenhagen’s “potato rows” (Kartoffelrækkerne in Danish). This neighborhood, located in the Østerbro area of Copenhagen, derives its name from humble beginnings as housing for working-class families, yet the area has become a very popular and expensive place to live.
The streets here are narrow …
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That was enough to track down the Potato Rows (map here) – and to head off in their general direction. Of course, there’s no way one walks or cycles directly to any place in Copenhagen, not without distractions.
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Like the National Gallery of Denmark (it’s free) ….
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… with its interesting example of Danish vandalism. Kids, likely, threw chairs from the plaza into the decorative pond …
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… which then became, spontaneously, an adventure playground. For the boys below, the city is an engaging and active place, and no one, including security, seemed about to shoo them away for their own safety.
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Beyond the gallery, greenspace – lots of it, including a church graveyard, the Holems Kirkegard, which I wandered into, thinking it was a shortcut. (It’s not.) But there was no rush, especially when it’s hard to find a better example of landscaping designed for the pleasure of contemplation, strolling and even picnicking.
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Time to push on – necessarily avoiding various gardens, castles, galleries and churches. Finally, a major intersection (map here).
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Not quite what I had imagined as Copenhagen scale, but typical for a town with broad, straight avenues surrounding a medieval core and with commercial arterials dividing blocks of courtyard housing. They also conveniently provide enough room, unlike Vancouver, for spacious and separated cycle paths in both directions.
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This, by the way, is not an atypical amount of cycling traffic outside rush hour. I began to realize that the amount of traffic on Vancouver’s bikeways can be the same or greater than on much of the pathway system in Copenhagen. It’s just that they have so much more of it dispersed through their network.
Oh, here too we’re out of space. But the Potato Rows are down the street. We’ll get there tomorrow.
My impression of Copenhagen (and Amsterdam) was that often the cycling infrastructure came at the expense of pedestrian space, rather than automobile. That photo is a great example – a tiny sidewalk (that probably gets cluttered with parked bikes), and a pretty vast road (by European measures). Which is not to say both cities don’t have a lot to teach us, just that we need to still use a critical eye.
Not really true. The usable sidewalk space is similar. Here we fill up the space with poles and other street clutter. Plus as cycling is so convenient and easy, people there cycle for trips that people over here walk. Thus there is little need for wide sidewalks
Okay, my experience in these cities was different than yours Richard. As a pedestrian I felt crowded out and under siege from the cyclists (riding & parked), generally. Definitely didn’t feel prioritized.
In the photo – it’s a 4 lane wide road and what appears to be less than 3ft of useable sidewalk space – I consider that a pretty meager allocation for pedestrians (and all cyclists are pedestrians at some point).
What is missing most on this street are trees.
Note how space efficient and uncluttered the streets are. No light or sign poles wasting space unlike in Vancouver. The lights are strung from cables attached to the buildings and they paint the curbs to indicate if there is parking or not. It’s creative solutions like this that enable them to fit bike lanes on narrow streets.
I lived in Copenhagen and had no trouble walking. It was easy and safe. Those sidewalks are enough.