The Life-Sized City Blog: Rack and Roll

When you live in a country so completely saturated with bike culture it is often fun to see the details. Once your bike infrastructure is in place, it's time to get creative. Bike racks are, in many ways, merely functional devices for making a bike stand up while you're not on it. Kickstands are standard gear, of course, but when you have - in Copenhagen anyway - 36% of the population commuting by bike each day, you need solid racks to put the bikes in. In the hope - often vain - of maintaining order on the streets.At busy train stations you'll often find double-decker bike parking. Obviously the lower level is first to be filled up but it's no difficult task to hoist your bike up to the next level.

Bike racks can be aesthetically-pleasing to the eye. Here the Danish tradition for cool, functional design comes into play.

A long line of bike racks outside a college. Just hang your handlebars on the hook and off you go.

In a narrow and ancient backyard, this is a creative space management solution. And no wet seats if it rains.

No wet seats if it rains here, either. Quaint little roofs cover the seat.

An elegant and functional little bike rack at the beach. It's winter and the rack eagerly awaits the summer hordes.

Even in a well-established bike culture there will be chaos. The sign reads: "Bicycle parking prohibited". :-)


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