World: r3wp

Some people bike in the city - there's bike lanes everywhere - but 
for the most part people either use cars or public trans. Suburban 
people mostly use cars - the suburbs are designed that way.

ok, typical image of traffic in copenhagen: http://livablestreets.info/share/copenhagen_cyclists.jpg
What does it look like in Chicago?

or http://www.recumbentblog.com/images/copenhagen-cyclists.jpg

Owning a car is very expensive in Chicago because the traffic and 
parking rules are defined by the Department of Revenue - lots of 
bogus charges and tickets.

I suppose the amount of highrises in Chicago creates a different 
street environment than Copenhagen, that AFAIR is a very flat city.

Kind of the same is going on here. Parking is getting more and more 
expensive to get the cars out of the city. It's free to use the roads 
though. You only pay, if you cross the large bridge to go to Fyn 
and Jutland. I use a motorbike, train/bus or bike. It's free to park 
a motorbike, so less exensive.

People tend to either use cars or public trans, but less often both. 
Neighborhoods with easy access to public trans (particularly trains) 
tend to not have parking, and vice versa. I live in a rare neighborhood 
with both.

Or walking, but it generally seems too crowded for bikes

at least in/around the Loop

Yeah, loop traffic is a little to scary for your averave biker. That's 
why every bike messenger I know is likely clinically insane :)

Is a block a standard size?

Well, my roommate and a friend did bike from IIT to O'Hare and back 
once - from Midnight to about 8 AM

How standard is standard size?

Er, what size is standard size?

I often hear "a couple of blocks away" in US TV shows, but I have 
no idea how big a block is. :-)

A friend from Texas got confused once, because apparently we're one 
of the few places in the US that measures distance in units of time. 
 I'd never even thought much of it.

Are all blocks 500 yards or something, or is it different from place 
to place?

The scale on Google Maps looks like most are around 400 feet, but 
there's the river that messes it up, and some locations have a slightly 
different layout...  Unfortunately, that's the best I can do

8 blocks = 1 mile.

Yes, Copenhagen is pretty flat: http://www.copenhagenet.dk/Images/KBH-Copenhagen.jpg

Not like Chicago: http://www.fas.org/irp/imint/docs/rst/Sect6/chicago2.jpg
:-)

Our cities are not lined up like yours. Ours are just a mess of roads 
going in all directions. :-) It's because our cities are maybe 1000 
years old, and the roads were never straighten. I've heard, some 
danes find the US way more practical and makes it easier to travel 
around. Others find our way more charming.

Winding roads in a city make it more fun to explore - "Wait a minute, 
how'd we get over here?"

Most of the outer suburbs are laid out at random. The city is a grid, 
with some occasional diagonal weirdness for indian trails.

What the oldes parts of US cities? The city or suburbs? If it's the 
city, why wasn't the grid just continued? Or maybe the suburbs are 
old villages and the city came later?

Naperville came first, then Chicago. Many of the suburbs started 
out as villiages or farming communities - the rest are filler. The 
grid is no more than 150 years old at most.

Ok, I've found Naperville at Google maps, and you live north in what 
area?

I've found Bartlett too, a little north of Naperville.

Geomol, I think it's because of our road system that GPS is so popular.

Copenhagen Denmark?

yes

Looks like an interesting place..  And I can definitely believe that 
about GPS from the maps

:-)

I've only been there once. It was enjoyable, but I prefer my homeland 
a little west from there. :-)

http://www.panoramio.com/photo/5297916


Close to what I would see if I looked out the window. Taken in the 
winter, so it doesn't look as good as in the summer.

Geomol, I live in Chicago, on the north edge near the lake. My parents 
live in Naperville (moved there when they retired.

H: I visited your part of Denmark once about as far back my memory 
goes, not exactly sure how close to where you are, but I have some 
vivid images of some beautiful places...

Birmingham (Alabama) is even by US standards, a new city.  Designed 
around the placement of a railroad junction where in the hills there 
was a confluence of iron ore, coal and limestone.  It's a grid system 
as much as the hills flanking it permit.  The hills - long ridges 
at the tippy-tail of the Appalachians - form a stark barrier between 
the town and the spidery suburbs.

It's definitely not cycle friendly (though I do every day) - the 
few cycle lanes that exist are like sick jokes with sudden dead ends 
and lines that  traffic generally treat as optional, or parking lanes.

And of course, half the traffic are huge trucks or SUVs.  And noone 
thinks twice about opening a car door on you as you pass a parked 
car...


I expect every city you have to be agressive to cycle consistently. 
 I do envy those that live in cities that encourage cycling - evident 
in the Copenhagen pics above...

One of the new initiatives to "fight" the depression here is to build 
a cycle way from the top of the country to the bottom.  I expect 
though you'll still have to catch the ferry to get across Cook Strait.

funny, the town next to mine (8 miles away is called napierville 
  :-)

montreal claims to have the most bicycle paths in any north american 
city.  we even are closing streets and completely removing parking 
downtown for bicycle lanes.


note montreal is a 365 day/year bicycle city... that include when 
there are blizzards, litterally  :-)  they have winter tires with 
studs for sale during the winter  :-)  people are just nuts.

IIRC they are something like 500km of bicycle paths, but I could 
be really off.

montreal and quebec city really are nice cities, in that they share 
many typical north american traits and other more european qualities 
(especially quebec city)

and quebec, the province (state), still has one of the lowest cost 
of life in the developped countries.   taxes are balanced, between 
socialism oriented services and capitalism oriented "let people spend 
money into the economy to let it go round and round.

and we really have quite a selection of pretty women ;-) ... people 
from the states coming in for training sessions, always marvel at 
how women here are at ease, varied in style, and usually pretty charming.

so its more than 350 km of cycling paths, finally... checked it up 
 :-)

and some paths actually go for like 80km from top to bottom... 


in the state, we even have regional paths crossing entire regions... 
everywhere... you can litterally pedal several hundred kilometers 
in a pretty straight line many directions  :-)

and where I use my race-bike is on the Formula 1 race track...   
on circuit Gilles-Villeneuve which is reserved for walking, cycling, 
and skating.   its one of the few places on the island where you 
are allowed to go well over 40km/h on your bike without getting speeding 
fines  :-)

iirc, Montreal is somewhat hilly - is there some accomodation for 
this in the design of the paths?