Originally published on 20th September 2020

This is a very special podcast episode. First, we are recording from our office in Copenhagen and then we have a guest again. But he is not just A guest, he is THE Mikael Colville-Andersen. 

Mikael is “The Pope of Urban Cycling”, once born in Canada, now a native citizen of Copenhagen. He works as an Urban designer with his own company and mobility expert all over the world and also hosts an urbanism documentary television series called “The Life-Sized City”. Mikael has held multiple talks around the world about the importance of cycling in the city, including two TED talks and he has published several books, among them “Copenhagenize - the definitive guide to global bicycle urbanism”. 

Chris chats with Mikael about how our cities have been changed in the past century, how Copenhagen and Amsterdam have become the role-models for urban planning worldwide and how we as citizens can re-conquer urban space. We talk in detail about how design is the answer to urban challenges why the strategy of cross-pollinating ideas in multi-diverse urban planning teams is the ultimate key.

This autumn, Mikael’s book „Copenhagenize - the definitive guide to global bicycle urbanism“ is being published in German language. Until then you can buy the English version here.

More info:

Listen to Mikael’s TED talks: Bicycle-Culture by Design and The Life-Sized City

For German viewers, ServusTV is broadcasting his Life-Sized City series regularly, just follow the Life-Sized City-Facebook Group to stay in the loop: https://www.facebook.com/lifesizedcity

Watch more of Mikael’s clips about bicycling and urban planning on his YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/16nine

Check out his websites https://www.colville-andersen.com/ and https://lifesizedcity.com/

What we touched upon in the podcast:

4:40 Copenhagen is the most bike-friendly city in the world - What have they done differently than Hamburg & Stockholm?

9.50 Bike usage rose from 0.2% to 7% in Seville: How to re-think a city and how to make use of best practices

17:34 Cycling Culture in Copenhagen - Why Design is the answer to solving Urban Challenges

22:33 Should Designers plan our cities? The importance of cross-pollination of ideas between engineers and urban designers and multi-diverse teams to solve urban challenges

28:20 Copenhageners are the most well behaved cyclists in the world and how nice little tweaks make bicycling even better

30:15 How to figure out what works - Pro