a few interesting things:

a pedal powered bar via Inhabitat


And then I ran across this article which points out some of the shortcomings of the Paris bike share; including but not limited to - theft (one found in Romania), defacement, getting tossed in the Seine, etc...

food for thought

photography

found this guy who shoots Copenhagen on flickr....

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hughw36/2439369468/ 

bikes

 So here are some bikes that my brother thinks could be good commuter bikes. 
Loring pictured above
Electra

also he recommends we check out http://bicycletimesmag.com/
and this also led me to this http://www.interbike.com/ which seems to be the expo for bike design.

more photos of CPH

from Bing [formerly MSN]:
http://www.bing.com/maps/
click on Bird's Eye

please feel free to capture your own images!

also, i was thinking that we could grayscale these images and then have our interventions in color, ie:

vertical green surfaces

here are some links to some articles about the guy who created this southern face of the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris which is an 8,600 square foot plant installation by the designer Patrick Blanc, featuring more than 170 different species.


http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/science/06/28/green.walls/index.html

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/house-and-home/gardening/the-only-way-is-up-patrick-blanc-the-master-of-vertical-gardening-reveals-his-tips-for-keeping-a-living-wall-alive-1669053.html


http://www.verticalgardenpatrickblanc.com/mainen.php
this is Blanc's site.  He has a lot of fantastic projects. 

"The most important thing is the stuff the plants actually grow in: as a kid, Blanc first experimented with growing the plants on washing-up cloths, but there have been a few refinements since then. "First we build a metal framework, to hold the wall away from the stone. Then, a layer of PVC, and then we use this cloth – it's an artificial felt – for the plants to grow in." These are then watered with a nutrient mix dripping continuously through the fabric. "  from the Independent

suncatcher: an umbrella that collects/makes light to store/collect/make energy

"stirling energy systems (SES) and tessera solar collaborated to design an advanced solar power collection

dish called the suncatcher. the units use precision mirrors arranged in a parabolic dish to focus the sun’s

rays onto a receiver, which then transmits the heat into an engine enclosed in hydrogen gas. as the gas

heats and cools, it applies pressure to the engine’s pistons to produce mechanical power. the power is

used to drive a generator and can be routed elsewhere. the new units have a higher efficiency than

first-generation models with additional cost reduction. the second generation suncatcher is 5,00 pounds

lighter than the original, has better optics and less parts. the mirrors are each made from steel using

a process similar to making the hood of a car. the new design will be deployed in 2010 for commercial

scale energy collection sites which use a large number of units in a concentrated are."

http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/16/view/7382/suncatcher.html

maybe we could even put a couple of these on top of our ivy-mesh covered structures.

more byrne

David Byrne: Living on Two Wheels [NYTimes video]

Carbon Belt System Technology + Bike-friendly bikes

ala Philip:

http://www.carbondrivesystems.com/overview.php?lang=us



Specialized Globe Carmel
the bicycles that sid's bikes rents out - $390


Specialized Live
built in bike rack

bikeoff

i keep going back to this site every morning and then twelve browser tabs later can not remember how i arrived to my most current article.... it has a really well organized design resource section that has a huge selection of case studies and all their links and then a fair summary with pros and cons and enough images to get your mind brainstorming for our own intents.

...and the bike parking guidelines may as well be the closest thing i have seen to a bicycle rack graphic standards.... there is a pretty involved wiki and parking guidelines consultation blog

some reading

i did a google search for "bike share". these are my findings:


david byrne's account of BIXI sept 5 2009
supposedly BIXI is coming to NYC soon.
journal entry contains photos of the bicycle and the payment system.

BIXI system
BICYCLE + TAXI = BIXI

Montreal BIXI's webpage

Subscription/payment information and web/smartphone application.

more david byrne accounts of biking sept 11 2009, a la zack.
A Talking Head Dreams of a Perfect City Osaka's robot-run parking lots mixed with the Minneapolis lakefront; a musician's fantasy metropolis

Worst bike share according to Copenhagenize oct 2 2009
Capitol Hill, in Washington, DC. - Wheels4Wellness

another good Copenhagenize blog post - this time, about the UN Climate Conference to be held in CPH. Apparently only 200 bikes will be lent to the 10,000 delegates expected. [By the way, the winner of the CPH Bike Share competition will be announced at the UN Climate Conference in CPH in December.] An excerpt to consider in the discussion of re-use and recycling:

"Listen... we scrap 400,000 bicycles each year in Denmark. Scrap 'em. Gone. Bye bye. The cities in Denmark are constantly removing bicycles from outside train stations. Many of them are sold at police auctions. Stolen bikes that are later found are given to the insurance company that now owns them. They don't know what to do with them. An organisation like Baisikeli has figured out that they can get a hold of them and send them to workshops in Africa. Copenhagen and Denmark could easily provide a few thousand bicycles. Even one bicycle for every delegate if we really put our mind to it. Plus bicycles for the press, the NGO's, the activists.There is no shortage of bicycles. Hell, we could dredge the canals of Copenhagen in one sweep and find bicycles enough for all the delegates from Australasia. Get them fixed up nice. The very first City Bikes in our bike share system were repaired and maintained at the bike shop at one of the prisons in the city. That's just one idea."

bike-sharing blog
international info on bike share programs

Gotta love wikipedia [and blogs]

the good stuff

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copenhagen

http://www.copenhagenize.com/

http://www.copenhagencyclechic.com/

[thanks erik for turning us on to these blogs!]

more links

http://www.designspotter.com/product/2009/07/Solar-Powered-Nightgarden.html

some light stuff

http://ffffound.com/image/1a69b14aeafdb6b3a4efbe763102ee24bb86e335

icons- graphics

http://infosthetics.com/archives/2009/04/new_york_city_administrative_code_book_as_infographics.html

users of the city and graphics

...some thoughts and a few maps found

So i was perusing the website of what is essentially Copenhagen DOT and I found a few maps that may be useful to us in understanding the nature of traffic in the CBD of the city.


The rest of the maps can be found in PDF here.

Also worth checking out is the Cykelkort (bike map) here (large PDF).


The second page provides potential cyclists with instructions on proper map folding techniques, existing bike-share (city bike) rules, explanations of transportation connections and rules, as well as a small map of the metro system.


Interestingly, It says that the city bikes may not be used after dark and must be returned to an appropriate rack before nightfall or you risk getting an "on the spot" fine by the police (which judging by the danish cops I've met probably means you'll get a mild warning and then a hug or punny joke so you don't leave feeling disheartened or singled out) because the bikes are not equipped with lights.


As you can see, the current shareable bikes leave a lot to be desired... I doubt we could win trying to convince the government to shell out the DKK's for everyone to ride on one of these, but at least we could push the integration of an electrical system on every bike so that the 'after hours' rule will no longer apply (don't worry, they don't create asinine laws to generate revenue there like in NYC; so they'll likely welcome the idea).

On that note, the MOOF bike I saw at ICFF earlier this year is a good example of what I'm getting at:


There's a generator in the rear hub that powers the lights while the bike is in motion ( and afterward for some time too, I think). I suggest we shy away from the exaggerated top tube, but otherwise I would think a bike of this stature would be a great jump-off point for the bikedesign aspect of the competition.... durable, chainguard, fenders, etc...

Anyway, I'm going to attempt to assemble those road-use maps and print it out large for tomorrow as well as procure a big street map for identifying key transport hubs and intersections.

Lastly, I thought of a danish to english pun while writing this that could perhaps be incorporated into the branding: ByCykel (looks like "bicycle" in english, but reads as "town bicycle" in danish)

zing!

some links

http://www.eventscape.net/2006/main.html

http://www.spaceinvading.com/entry/project_id/Lisbon_architecture_graffiti_200909161253112461

http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/8/view/7396/in-praise-of-shadows-european-lighting-design-at-va.html

some stuff about lighting...

(Research)

Feel free to post plenty of things found, such as many of the links we've already emailed. also images and whatnot. a preliminary organization system is in this post's labels.