The Do This, Get That Guide On Engineering Resume Objective

The Do This, Get That Guide On Engineering Resume Objective You may be an expert in 1 kind of carpentry, or be in a position to take on all of them. An electrician needs to be in a position to bid on work, estimate the expense of materials and labor, and estimate the time that it will take to finish the job. Utilize our electrical engineering resume example and you may make your own resume in a couple of minutes. With an entire slew of internet job sites out there it has never been simpler to obtain work. When applying for the job advertised, you will fruchtwein likely be wasting your time and will secure a notification that the job was filled by somebody better qualified than you. Show your possible employer why youre able to carry out the job better than others irrespective of how much experience youve got. In that instance, its better to tailor your resume for a mechanical engineering job to coincide with the language of the work offer. Type of Engineering Resume Objective Companies are watching out for candidates who arent only talkers but doers. Working in fashion may be challenging, but its also enjoyable. Resumes Unraveling The Secrets has an amazing bonus to assist with the difficult resume summary section, including a substantial collection of power words that youre able to utilize to impress prospective employers. Your resume objective have to be simple and have to be clear. There are plenty of packages on the market which supply resume maker software, but a lot of them, particularly the completely free versions, are usually not too useful and everyone appears to be utilizing them, so your resume will possible look the exact same anyway. Start writing online or even attempt to determine if you can begin your own company. Running your own company may also be very lucrative. Engineering Resume Objective Secrets Teaching is believed to be among the noble professions on the planet. Career experts say its important to emphasize transferab le abilities, or to put it differently, skills which have been acquired during the college educational experience which are important at work. Jobs in Psychology have an extremely very good future. So as to work as a Substance Abuse Counselor, you can begin by getting training at work. Be Prepared A thriving interview is determined by good preparation. Writing a resume has never been simpler Identify your finest skills by checking out jobs you want to apply for. Since resumes are essentially written to impress upon the hiring manager that youre a fantastic contender for employment, they are important. The Fight Against Engineering Resume Objective Make certain that your resume objective is pertinent to the role that youre seeking. Your objective ought to be precise and concise. To learn to compose a resume objective isnt at all that difficult. The resume objective is a brief gutachten of what you need to offer to a provider. As soon as it is tempting to just list out your strengths, you also need to function to make sure your communication skills are highlighted. Soft skills are the vital people skills required that you work well. Utilize your objective to demonstrate why youre still qualified, dependent on your abilities or education. You are able to create separate section entitled technical skills where you might incorporate the exposure to different tools and computer programs. Unlike a number of other professions, you dont necessarily need to get a degree in the specialty to begin. Possessing several desired positions or an overall statement about working in engineering may be negative. By saying precisely what sort of engineering position you want, you demonstrate that you get a particular career goal and youve thought about where you would like to go in the business. The subject of mechanical engineering is an extremely respectable one.

5 fonts that are better for your resume than Times New Roman

5 fonts that are better for your resume than Times New Roman5 fonts that are better for your resume than Times New RomanIf yourresumeis meant to representyou,then you want to look your best, right? Well, apparently using Times New Roman on a resume is the font equivalent of putting on sweatpants for a job interview, according to a2015 Bloomberg Business article. Since we would never let that happen, here are the five best fonts to use on yourresume instead of that boring, serif-filled default.1. Arial The Safe ChoiceIf Times New Roman is like wearing sweatpants to a job interview, then Arial is like wearing your trusted little black dress. This tried-and-true classic is a standard for resume fonts. Its clean, neutral and easy to read, making it a safe bet for any industry. Since an employer will often only look at your resume for a matter of seconds, you want a font that is aesthetically pleasing and grabs the employers attention at a quick glance, Wendi Weiner, a certified professio nal resume writer and founder ofThe Writing Guru,told Business News Daily.If you rather be safe than sorry, stick to Arial.2. Helvetica The Trusted ClassicHelvetica has the simplicity of Arial but with a more classic appeal. Its a no-fuss typeface that has a timeless feel to it, Brian Hoff, a creative designer at Brian Hoff Design,told the Huffington Post. Samantha Howie, a senior human resources recruiter at New York-based Maximum Management Corp, added that Helvetica is a popular pick at the recruiting firm where she works. Go with Helvetica for a timeless font on your resume.3. Gill Sans and Gill Sans Light The Clean and ClassyThe Gill Sans family is a great way to be professional but not basic. These fonts give yourresume a modern and clean look, Polly Buckland, the managing director of the Typeface Group,told CNBC. Although, she warns users to be careful when displaying it in bold because it can look a little chunky. Proceed with the Gill Sans fonts - just do so with caution.4 . Calibri The Perfect DefaultCalibri is the font that really does it all. Its interesting, yet professional. Its modern, yet leise classic. So much so that Calibri replaced Times New Roman as the default typeface in Microsoft Word and replaced Arial as the default typeface in both PowerPoint and Excel. While Howietold the Huffington Postthat the font is clear, readable, straightforward but not lacking in personality, a2015 article from the Washington Poststated otherwise. The article compared the default font to those nice guys that get to know your parents for no apparent reason and somehow wind up sitting at your dinner table. The consensus seems to say that Calibri istoo expected. But hey, maybe a little predictability is exactly what your resume needs.5. Georgia The Modern TwistUnlike many other resume fonts, Georgia doesnt feel so dated. It feels fun and contemporary, yet still traditional and trusted.Mashablerecommends using Georgia instead of Times New Roman because it was ac tually designed to be read on screens. Heres the catch Although Georgia looks amazing on the internet, it doesnt always translate as well in print. So if youre going to distribute hard copies of your resume, think twice before using this fun font.Bottom lineTheres noperfectfont. You always have to take into consideration the industry you are entering, the job youre applying for and the image you wish to present. Your resume has the rare ability to divulge who you are as aprofessional and sometimes as a person in a limited amount of words, so make it count. Butpleasejustdo so with a font thats better than Times New Roman.This article was originally published on Swirled.com.

Quick! Get into Harvard Law School While You Can!

Quick Get into Harvard Law School While You CanQuick Get into Harvard Law School While You CanYesterday, Professor Jonathan D. Glater of the University of California, Irvine, School of Law, wrote in the New York Timesthat right now is, in fact, a great time for you to apply to law school. Not because the economy is on the upswing or because legal hiring is predicted to grow in the next few years- but because its easier to get in.Why is it easier to get in to law school right now? Because fewer people are applying.And why are fewer people applying? Because, for many students,law school is a mistake.A law school diploma is no longer a sure ticket to a job, let alone a life of luxury. Yet a six-figure income seems almost essential for grads facing an average debt load of $125,000 from private law schools and $75,000 from public institutions.Unfortunately, landing one of these law firm jobs is far from guaranteed. In fact, of the schools whose graduates have thehighest average debtupon g raduation, the average full-time employment rate is just under 50%and that includes all types of employment, not just BigLaw (where, by the way, only 8% of the class of 2011 got jobs, according to the Wall Street Journal).This is not going to change because fewer people are applying to law school- especially since fewer applicants does not necessarily mean fewer admitted students.According to Professor Glater, if fewer people are applying to law school, then there is less competition overall for spots. This is obviously true. Also, Ive heard its really easy to get a reservation at the worst restaurant in New York City.Glater goes on to argue that the number of test-takers earning higher scores on the LSAT has declined more than the number of students who earn lower scores. That means that an applicant who scores well may have a better shot of getting into a highly selective institution than in years past, and perhaps of getting a more generous aid package as a result of competition over students with high scores.This is good news for a very small percentage of applicants 1) those with great LSAT scores and viable post-graduate career plans to pay off their loans (i.e., its likely that theyll get a corporate job AND they are willing to stay in said job for ten years), or 2) those with great LSAT scores who are awarded significant financial aid packages.But the danger of Professor Glaters argument is that it ignores the very reason that there are fewer applicants to law school. Legal hiring is down. Tuition continues to rise. Not everyone can get a job in BigLaw. Not everyone wants a job in BigLaw. Many public interest positions dont pay enough to justify taking on $100,000+ of student loans.So please dont sign up for the next LSAT because you think youll have a better shot of getting in to law school. Applying for law school- just like any big investment- should be done only after careful consideration of your goals and finances.CONNECT WITH US ON TWITTER VAULT LAW

how to list the dates of your current job on your resume

how to list the dates of your current job on your resume how to list the dates of your current job on your resume This is a tiny, minor, inconsequential thing, but Im telling you anyway because Im neurotic about small things: If you are currently employed, the dates on your resume for your current job should end with present. For instance: Chocolate Teapot Maker, 2009 present not Chocolate Teapot Maker, 2009 2013 If you do the latter, many of us will wonder if youre still employed there or whether you left. And if it happens to be, say, December 2012, and your most recent job says 2009 2012, well wonder if youre still there or whether you left 10 months ago. And then well spend time asking you, when you could have been clear about it from the beginning. Minor, very minor, but worth doing right.

Getting a Law Job with Average Grades...and other Questions

Getting a Law Job with Average Grades...and other Questions Getting a Law Job with Average Grades...and other Questions Have questions about how to navigate the world of legal networking, interviewing and job searching? So did more than 1200 law students, who tuned in to the lively and informative webcast “Ask the Experts- Answers to Your Questions on Legal Job Search, Networking and Interviewing” on Thursday, November 8. The event was hosted by LexisNexis and co-sponsored by Vault and the American Bar Association, and featured a panel of four experts: Brynne Lehner, a legal recruiter at Manatt Phelps Phillips LLP; Rich Williamson, a partner at Nevada firm Robertson, Johnson, Miller Williamson; Sheila Nielsen, former lawyer and career counselor at Nielsen Career Consulting; and Vault’s own Law Editor, Rachel Marx Boufford. The panelists weighed in on students’ questions both during the panel and at an “after-party” on Facebook. Below, some of the takeaways: How many firms should I apply to? It’s tempting to fall into the trap of sending off a hundred generic applications in a panic-fueled spree, but Lehner advised against this. Instead, she urged students to thoroughly research potential employers and target a few that they are genuinely interested in working for. Lehner noted the importance of treating each application as if it’s the only one you’re doing; the time and effort you put in will be evident to the person reading your application. What if my grades aren’t good? A less-than-stellar GPA isn’t necessarily the end of the world. Grades will always matter, but so do other things: the types of classes you took, the work experience you gained through clinics and clerkships, the activities you pursued outside of class like mock trial, law review and moot court, as well as your individual background and perspective. While there are certainly firms out there that might not consider anyone with a GPA under a specific cutoff, most firms will consider your background more holistically. Focus on what you can offer the firm, rather than on what you’re lacking. Make your classes count. When asked if there was anything they wished they’d done differently in law school, both Williamson and Boufford said they wished they had taken more substantive skills courses outside of the required curriculum. Tax Law may not seem fun, but it’s often essential knowledge for a practicing attorney. While nonacademic pursuits are important, be sure to take advantage of the group of legal experts at your disposal (your professors). Take classes that are likely to come in handy later on.       How do you network? Networking is one of the most intimidating tasks a law student- or any job seeker- can face, but it’s also one of the most important. Your classmates are valuable resources with connections of their own, who may be working for your target employers in a few short years. Williamson suggested talking to professors and reaching out to associates at firms that you’re interested in on LinkedIn, while Nielsen encouraged going to panels or events which employees of your target firms are attending and introducing yourself. Boufford also suggested using your school’s career services to look up alumni who are now working at firms that interest you. What should I wear? A good rule of thumb to follow for interview attire, said Boufford, is: “if you have to ask whether you can wear it, don’t wear it.” Save the bright colors and funky patterns for after you’ve gotten the job. The answer to the skirt suit vs. pantsuit debate for women, unfortunately, is a bit less clear: it depends on the geographic region and culture of the firm you’re applying to. If you don’t want to work in a conservative place that would view your pantsuit unfavorably, it’s probably best to just not apply there.     Going solo. Got more of an independent streak? Williamson identified several resources for students who want to pursue solo practice, such as the ABA Solo and Small Firm General Practice Division’s online SOLOSEZ listserv and state Solo and Small Firm Resource Centers. Some states like Washington and Texas even offer startup kits with everything you need to know about starting your own practice. Finding a mentor- perhaps someone who started their own solo practice- is also key.     Got a J.D.- now what? The legal field is diverse and dynamic, and there are plenty of alternative career options for professionals with legal training. A few of the alternative career paths Nielsen mentioned were journalism (e.g., writing for legal publications), sales (e.g., selling products to law firms), marketing or public relations (perhaps within a law firm), financial services and planning, teaching and training, consulting, compliance and mediation.   Find the right fit. All the panelists agreed on the importance of framing your job search strategy around a central theme of finding a good fit for you. The job search is a two-way street: it’s not just about how you can present yourself as the best candidate for firms- you, as the candidate, also need to consider what’s right for you. Take some time to assess your values, what type of work you want to be doing, the work/life balance you want, where you’d like to live and what type of culture and people you’d most like to be around, then target the firms that share your values and have these desired qualities.   In case you missed it, you can listen to the full webcast here.

20 Twitter Accounts for Millennials to Follow

20 Twitter Accounts for Millennials to Follow 20 Twitter Accounts for Millennials to Follow millennials are expected to outnumber baby boomers by next year. Born between 1981 and 1996, millennials are typically known for their desire to pursue more than just a paycheck from their positions- they want a job that aligns with their passions, too. They value collaboration, shy away from structured corporate hierarchies, and seek meaning from their work. That’s why a company’s culture is so important to them, and one of the major factors in determining whether they’ll accept a job offer or not. And above all, they want work flexibility! Most millennials are not interested in the 9-to-5 grind- they want flexible jobs, such as remote jobs, freelance and contract work, and flexible work schedules. Millennials are also known for being super social media savvy, using it to not only socialize, but for work purposes as well. That’s why this list of 20 Twitter accounts for millennials to follow can be a great guide for them at any stage of their career. The experts on this list are at the forefront of what matters most to millennials, whether it’s to gain some guidance in finding a career, knowing how to find work flexibility, or having a career (and life) that you truly love. While this list of 20 Twitter accounts to follow is geared towards millennials, job seekers of any age and career stage can be sure to glean some great advice that they can apply to their own lives, too! Here are the 20 Twitter accounts for millennials to follow: Alissa Carpenter With a focus on leadership development and corporate training, Alissa Carpenter is a millennial expert and certified professional coach. Her goal: teaching companies how to engage and retain their talent, specifically millennial workers. Amanda Abella Amanda Abella is a millennial personal finance and business expert. She wrote the book  Make Money Your Honey: A Spirited Entrepreneur’s Guide to Having a Love Affair with Work and Money, and has been featured in Forbes, the Huffington Post, and Consumerist. Andy Josuweit With the majority of millennials in debt, Andy Josuweit offers help to pay off those pesky student loans as the CEO/founder of Student Loan Hero. Ashira Prossack Working as an engagement expert for millennials and generation Z, Ashira Prossack is a Forbes contributor and speaker. She helps businesses understand millennials and what they want in terms of work to help engage, attract, and retain them. Ashley Stahl Ashley Stahl began her career as a national security expert for the Pentagon. Today, she’s a career coach helping others find a job that they love or launch a dream business. Chelsea Krost As one of the leading millennial influencers, Chelsea Krost is a LinkedIn-rated Top 20 Millennial marketing and brand strategist. She has been a brand ambassador for such companies as Intel, Mastercard, IBM, Skype, and TurboTax. Daniela Pierre Bravo Daniela Pierre Bravo is the booking producer at NBC Universal, and a contributor for NBC’s Know Your Value. She co-authored The Millennial Challenge, which publishes next spring. Elana Lyn Gross On her website, Elana Lyn gives millennial women career, lifestyle, and job search tips. Over 250 women have been featured for her Career Profile series, which gives a glimpse into other successful millennial women’s lives. Hannah Becker Known as a millennial career, lifestyle, and travel blogger, Hannah Becker is a military spouse who writes about nontraditional career paths at the Motivated Millennial. Jasmine Wilkes With a focus in HR, Jazmine Wilkes is a blogger, speaker, and social media influencer in Alabama. She helps others on their way to becoming the best version of themselves. J.T. O’Donnell J.T. O’Donnell is the founder and CEO of Workitdaily.com, a site that helps turn frustration into job search success. She offers tips on personal branding as a way to achieve career success. Katie Crew Katie Crew is the voice behind Millennial on the Move, a lifestyle, travel, and career blog. She gives relatable tips on how to travel, live, and work well as a millennial in today’s world. Kaytie Zimmerman Kaytie Zimmerman is a Forbes contributor and founder of Optimistic Millennial, a site that helps people navigate their finances and work options. She offers tips on how other generations can work with millennials successfully. Lauretta Ihonor Lauretta Ihonor is the founder of the Ambition Plan, a UK-based site that gives guidance for women who aren’t sure what their next professional steps are. Ihonor is a former doctor who has changed careers five times! Lindsey Pollak Lindsey Pollak is a multigenerational workplace expert and New York Times bestselling author. She recently gave a TEDx Talk entitled, “It’s About Time We Stop Shaming Millennials.” Nicole Booz Nicole Booz is the editor-in-chief of GenTwenty, the twenty-something’s guide to life. The site has self-development, career, health, and financial tips. Plus, you’ll find free workbooks, templates, and ebooks in the site’s resource library. Rachel Ritlop The Confused Millennial is a lifestyle blog for millennials, created by Rachel Ritlop, a Forbes contributing writer and blog consultant/coach. She helps millennials with “adulting” and gives tips for professional and personal development. Sarah Landrum A writer at Forbes, Sarah Landrum offers job searching and career advice at her site, Punched Clocks. Some of her articles include “How to Make Friends at Work as an Introvert,” “How to Ease Pre-Interview Nerves,” and “How to Dress Professionally Without Breaking the Bank.” Stefanie O’Connell Stefanie O’Connell is a millennial money expert who has been featured on USA Today, ABC News, the Wall Street Journal, and many other major media outlets. She offers a Cash Confidence Challenge to help others master their money issues. Yolanda M. Owens A guru for those needing professional guidance, Yolanda M. Owens works with clients to help them learn how to tell their professional story- and get noticed by employers. Looking for a job that fits your lifestyle?   Browse Open Flexible Jobs

Cycling in the city Your health versus the hazard

Cycling in the city Your health versus the hazard Cycling in the city Your health versus the hazard It was just another morning commute. That is, until a bus driver ran a red light, turned right, and drove straight into Ann-Doerthe Hass Jensen. The bus knocked the social worker off her bike, trapping her underneath, a wheel pinning down and crushing her left foot. It was a school bus heading to a Copenhagen kindergarten, and the children aboard were screaming. Ann was rushed to hospital in excruciating pain, every bone in her foot shattered.In the six weeks of hospitalisation that followed, part of Ann’s foot was amputated. Salvageable bones were wired back into place and skin grafts were taken from her thigh to replace the torn and missing flesh. “I’m pretty lucky,” says Ann. “People normally die when this happens.”It was a year before she could walk again. During that year, she had to take a taxi to work every day. “I hated it,” she says. “Here, the taxi drivers are a menace, and I was really scared of accidents.” She also hated having to wait. Travelling by b ike in Copenhagen is often the fastest way to get around, which is the top reason why Copenhageners cycle.Ann’s physiotherapy was tricky. The missing portion of her foot is a crucial stepping point, and its absence affects her balance. But walking wasn’t the only part of her rehabilitation. In Copenhagen â€" where people own 5.2 bicycles for every car â€" over a third of residents pedal to work, school or college. So rehabilitation often literally means getting you back in the saddle. The City of Copenhagen helped Ann get a specially adapted Nihola cycle: a sturdy, stable three-wheeler that has allowed her to regain independent mobility.In cities across the world, researchers, planners and policy makers are examining the many potential plus points of cycling. Increasing the proportion of people who cycle or walk, rather than drive, could not only reduce air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, but also lower people’s risk of developing a number of diseases. But at what cost ? To what extent does cycling in cities expose you to the risk of injury or death? What makes some cities so much safer and attractive for cyclists than others?The drastically different design and policy approaches taken by large cities in Europe and North America provide some stark comparisons on cycling safety, equity and its impact on public health. To weigh up the risks and benefits of city cycling, and explore what can be learned where public health, urban design and transport engineering meet, I did what I had to do: I hopped on a bike. §In Paris, new bike lanes are pervasive. Though many of the streets are centuries old, sometimes cobbled, and claustrophobically narrow, bike lanes have been prominently marked. There are also some segregated cycle paths, often crazily disconnected â€" disappearing and appearing again in a seemingly random fashion. Skinny one-way streets might have bike lanes on the right, so you cycle with the direction of the traffic, or on the left, so you†™re in the contraflow.Oddly though, I didn’t feel unsafe cycling these narrow lanes. Many are marked 30 kph for cars. Having parked cars on the right of the bike lane, so they’re facing you, can be advantageous: it’s the passenger-side door that opens into bike traffic, so it’s less likely you’ll be struck than if it were the driver’s side exposed. And if you were to cycle into an open passenger door, you’re more likely to close it than open it further.On some major streets, like Boulevard Saint-Michel, there are special lanes shared by bikes and buses. Though I felt less squeezed cycling in these wide lanes, where traffic was much lighter than the adjacent lanes for cars, I did feel a little intimidated about sharing the lane with buses. That said, the Parisian bus drivers gave me plenty of space, and didn’t behave aggressively. I did get a sense that traffic here has become accustomed to bicycles. There are some off-street cycle paths too. Zooming alongside the Sei ne on the elevated bike path, totally segregated from motorised traffic, was pure delight.Vélib’ bikes, from Paris’s bicycle-sharing system, were in use everywhere. I saw men in suits, teenagers, women in chic business attire, pensioners, and female university students riding side by side on the bikes. Posting celebrity Vélib’ sightings on social media has apparently become something of a local pastime. The bikes are such a fixture that I saw one young man taking a break on a parked Vélib’, feet on the handlebars, chatting on his mobile phone.In the midst of Paris’s cycling revolution, it seemed fitting to meet Ari Rabl at Le Procope, a city restaurant where some of the leaders of the French Revolution gathered. With Audrey de Nazelle, a Lecturer at the Centre for Environmental Policy at Imperial College London, Rabl, a consultant and retired Senior Scientist at the Centre Energétique et Procédés of the École des Mines in Paris, has looked at the health benefits whe n people move from cars to walking or cycling.Rabl explains that they found that the population-level costs due to fatal accidents are outweighed at least tenfold by the health benefits of walking or cycling. Monetising the costs and benefits, Rabl and de Nazelle estimated that for a driver who switches from driving to cycling for their 5 km commute, the overall health benefit from physical activity is worth about 1300 euros per year. Of course, it’s important to point out that while fatal accidents might be reported as small ‘population-level costs’ in public health studies, they have tragic, catastrophic costs for individuals and their loved ones. §Four days earlier, and some 1,000 or so kilometres north-east, I’m sitting in a conference room at the University of Copenhagen’s Department of Public Health, overlooking the picturesque Lakes area. Around the table are health researchers Astrid Ledgaard Holm, Henning Langberg and Henrik Brønnum-Hansen.Ledgaard Holm, a doctor al student, has modelled the health impacts of increased cycling. Accounting for physical activity, exposure to accidents and air pollution, she and colleagues found that the overall burden of disease â€" including heart disease, stroke, type II diabetes, breast cancer, colon cancer, cardiopulmonary disease and lung cancer â€" was reduced in people who cycled. The positive health effects of increased cycling were more than a third larger than the potential loss of health from bicycle accidents and air pollution.Other studies investigating the health impacts of cycling have found similar positive benefits, although the magnitude varies. In a different study based in Copenhagen, researchers analysed data from over 13,000 women and 17,000 men to explore the impact of physical activity on mortality. Even after adjusting for other factors, such as physical activity in leisure time, they found that people who did not cycle to work experienced a 39 per cent higher mortality rate than those who did. In other words, cycling improved longevity.One of the most interesting insights the Danish researchers share is how they’ve discovered that many Danes don’t consider cycling exercise. “People here can easily be riding back and forth 5 km per day, and if you ask them on a questionnaire if they are physically active, they will say ‘No, I don’t do any exercise’,” says Ledgaard Holm. For many here, she says, it’s not a choice of activity, but your mode of transport.What’s immediately striking about cycling in Copenhagen is the incredible diversity of individuals on bicycles. Embedding myself in the morning rush-hour traffic on Nørrebrogade, one of Copenhagen’s busiest cycle routes, I see a woman in a long flowing black jilbab pedalling a cargo bike with two small children in the basket. I see men of all ages in suits; women in dresses, high-heeled boots and smart coats, flowing garments protected from the spokes by metal skirt guards on the wheel hub. I se e university students and children cycling to school; toddlers strapped into child seats on the front or back of mum or dad’s bike; and baskets of children pedalled along in sturdy Christiana or streamlined Bullit bikes. Some children ride the cycle paths independently. Others are shepherded by parents cycling alongside, who guide their charges with the occasional gentle hand on the back.While cycling to interviews at the University of Copenhagen one morning, I happen upon a makeshift memorial on the side of the street. At the intersection of Store Kongensgade and Dronningens Tværgade in the city centre, a stretch of tarmac the length of a body is adorned with fresh flowers and candle jars inscribed with handwritten notes. I discover later that it’s where a 20-year-old woman on her bike was struck and killed several weeks earlier by a tourist bus making a right-hand turn.Decades after streets were first painted with white crosses to mark fallen cyclists, cycling accidents, alth ough rare, are still not taken lightly here. Only one Copenhagen cyclist was killed in 2012, and no year from 1998 to 2012 has seen more than seven cyclists killed in the city, according to Statistics Denmark. These figures are quite something in a city where the population cycles an estimated 1.27 million km every day. The risk associated with being a cyclist in Copenhagen “has dropped by more than 70 per cent over the last 15 years” according to Niels Torslov, the City of Copenhagen’s Traffic Director. “And it’s a very strong story about finding the right measures, and designing a road space in a way that protects the users, especially those cycling.”Cycling in Copenhagen, where cycling is deeply embedded in the city’s culture. © Sarah Maycock/Handsome FrankThe use of cycling helmets is growing among Copenhageners, noticeably more than in Amsterdam, where helmet wearing is still very much an exception. At the time of her accident, in 2006, Ann-Doerthe Hass Jensen was wearing a helmet, though clearly, as she says herself, a helmet protects your head but not your feet. She says that working at Copenhagen’s Centre for Rehabilitation of Brain Injury, as she does, makes you fanatical about helmets. “There is no way I would not have a helmet on,” she says.After several days of exploring Copenhagen by bike, I meet Ann at the Centre, where she leads me outside to see her specially adapted tricycle. Her sense of pride is palpable. It takes her between 30 and 40 minutes to make the trip from home to work. “The first few times I got back on a bike again, it was hard. Really, really hard,” she says. “There was a lot of crying.” Now, though, there is no stopping her.In her first year of recovery, Ann’s rehabilitation team felt she needed to re-establish both the freedom of mobility and the quality of life that her bicycle had previously allowed. It wasn’t easy. Beyond the physical challenges of getting Ann back in the saddle, there was ano ther hurdle: her enormous fear. “I had to work with a psychologist… because I was scared like hell,” she says. Using cognitive therapy, she and her psychologist worked through the entire experience, going over the incident report in excruciating detail. Pushing through that fear was tough. “It wasn’t my perception that was off that day. It was somebody who actually did something wrong. And it took me a while to get my confidence again,” she says. Ann’s fear was not unreasonable. Her experience wasn’t just ‘an accident’. It was the action of a negligent driver, whose licence was revoked when the case came to court two years later. §Research shows that perceived safety â€" how safe you feel â€" is at least as critical as measured safety to the willingness of citizens to hop on a bike. For me, of all the cities I cycled in, London was the most terrifying.Cyclists were prevalent in the centre of the city, and what immediately struck me, beyond the dense, fast-moving traffic they were attempting to navigate, was the rapid speed they were cycling at. In impromptu interviews with cyclists stopped at traffic lights, I asked one woman why she cycled. Her answer: “I hate the Tube [London’s underground train system], it’s really unhealthy and sweaty and overcrowded.” Asked if she felt safe cycling, she said, “No. That’s the honest answer.” But her sentiments weren’t shared by everyone I asked. A student who had just moved to London said, “It’s about five to ten years ahead of New York,” adding that she felt quite safe cycling on London’s cycle superhighways.I, on the other hand, did not. I spent some time watching cyclists crossing the Southwark Bridge section of one of the cycle superhighways. Riding along CS7’s blue painted bike lane on a Boris bike (the nickname for bikes in London’s cycle hire scheme, introduced in 2010 under Mayor Boris Johnson) largely unseparated from mixed, fast-moving traffic, made me anxious and u neasy. What’s more, I suffer from asthma, making me a bit of a human canary for air pollution. After the noticeably clean air of Copenhagen, the polluted air of London made for laboured breathing.London is beginning to make progress on provisions for cyclists, and there are good sections of the growing infrastructure, but I saw plenty of room for improvement. On both sides of Southwark Bridge, which crosses the river Thames, the short, separated span of blue bike lane, protected by a concrete barrier, fed straight into a bus stop. This forced cyclists to choose between two unappealing options: wait like a sitting duck behind the bus while it stops, or pull out into traffic to overtake, and risk being in one of the bus’s many blind spots when it pulls out from the kerb. Peter Wright is the delivery planner for cycling at Transport for London (TfL), the local government body chaired by Johnson. Wright explains that bus-stop bypasses are planned, “to try and avoid conflict so tha t cyclists don’t have to come out into general traffic”. A similar hazard was delivery vehicles parked in bike lanes, a common sight in London and Paris.In November 2013, when asked about the spate of cycling deaths, Johnson told the Guardian that if cyclists did not follow the rules, “there’s no amount of traffic engineering that we invest in that is going to save people’s lives”. Growing evidence suggests that statement is untenable, not to mention that it blames the victim. I requested an interview with Johnson. His press office did not reply.To be fair, though, London’s Mayor â€" a cyclist himself â€" is making gradual progress. In 2013, TfL announced its Safe Streets for London plan, which aims to reduce the number of people killed or seriously injured by 40 per cent by 2020. Ben Plowden from TfL Surface Transport said: “In 2015, we will be spending £145m a year on cycling, or roughly £18 a head, up with the best in Germany and almost on a par with the Netherl ands. This represents around 2 per cent of TfL’s overall expenditure and is roughly proportionate to the current 2 per cent mode share of cycling.” He added that cycle spending would total £913m during the next ten years, more than treble previously planned levels. §It is not completely clear how and why accident rates change as the number of cyclists varies, but a ‘safety in numbers’ effect seems to occur: safety improves in a city as the total number of cyclists increases. This effect has been seen in studies in Denmark, the Netherlands, 14 other European countries, Australia and 68 cities in California.“It is likely that causation runs in both directions: safer cycling encourages more cycling, and more cycling encourages greater safety,” writes John Pucher, Professor of Urban Planning at Rutgers University, in his 2012 book City Cycling, written with Ralph Buehler. Motorist behaviour probably contributes to this phenomenon. In places like Copenhagen â€" where four ou t of five individuals have access to a bicycle â€" most drivers are also cyclists, and so are accustomed to sharing public space with bicycles.It can be difficult to compare safety between cities because of the lack of consistency in data collection and because of the need to frame injuries and deaths within the context of ‘exposure’ â€" the overall numbers of trips, total distance or time spent cycling. Under-reporting of cycling crashes is also a well-documented problem. Nevertheless, Pucher and Buehler’s book listed figures for annual fatalities per 10,000 bike commuters (2010 figures): Copenhagen 0.3 Amsterdam 0.4 Vancouver 0.9 Toronto 1.3 Portland 1.9 Montréal 2.0They listed these figures for annual fatalities per 100,000 daily cyclists (2009 figures):Paris 8.2 London 11.0 New York 37.6Unless you are travelling at breakneck speed, though, there is nothing inherently dangerous about cycling â€" it’s the environment you’re in that creates danger. Ian Roberts, Professor in the Nutrition and Public Health Intervention Research Unit at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, began his career as a paediatric trauma doctor. “I saw lots of children hit by cars,” he says, “and it  really  is awful.” He describes these deaths as “kinetic energy disease” â€" a reference to the idea of mismatched masses in motion. When one of those masses is protected by metal casing, but the other isn’t, it’s clear who is more likely to be hurt.One of the trends Roberts has puzzled over is the long-term decline in the death rates of British pedestrians, despite an increase in motorisation. “Road safety people would point to it as an example of how roads are getting safer. But I was a little bit sceptical… because [the] volume of kinetic energy on the road was going up.” An alternative hypothesis was that in industrialised countries, there were fewer people walking, something investigated in research he conducted while working in New Zealand. “Over the years it became obvious that people were walking and cycling less than ever before in the history of humans on the planet,” says Roberts. “The world was not getting safer, it was getting more hostile, and people were voting with their feet by getting out of the way.”In North America in the 1970s, cyclists â€" or at least the most vocal advocacy groups purporting to represent them â€" did not want to get out of the way. So-called vehicular cycling was emerging, a philosophy that has influenced transport policy in both North America and Britain. Fathered by Californian industrial engineer and cycling activist John Forester, vehicular cycling encourages cyclists to travel on the road in mixed traffic. On his website, Forester writes: “Vehicular cycling, so named bec ause you are acting as the driver of a vehicle, just as the traffic laws require, is faster and more enjoyable, so that the plain joy of cycling overrides the annoyance of even heavy traffic.”In 1970s California, lots of athletic cyclists were forming touring groups for riding fast on roads, explains Anne Lusk, a Research Scientist at the Harvard School of Public Health. Back then, she says, such groups may have legitimately feared that US adoption of Dutch-style cycle paths would restrict bike access to roads. “At the time, paths were becoming crowded by joggers, walkers, in-line skaters and baby-carriage pushers,” says Lusk, so cycling advocates fought forcefully against proposals for cycle paths.The vehicular cycling philosophy became incorporated into US guidelines for transport design, and its influence was felt for decades, limiting the building of physically separated cycle tracks and putting cyclists on the road with cars. “It’s something that really stuck in North America,” says Meghan Winters, Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University, Canada. Asked if the philosophy of vehicular cycling is evidence-based, she says no. “But it’s something that was sticky and was adopted very broadly for very, very many years,” she adds.Forester’s teachings included how to operate as a motor vehicle, with skills like not riding in the door zone (the area next to a parked car where an opened door could hit a moving cyclist). They were useful, says Lusk, in that they did teach people how to bike with cars if they had to. But she does not endorse Forester’s view that there should be no cycle lanes painted on the road, no separate cycle tracks and no cycle symbols.Lusk, and other researchers who have studied the particular needs of certain groups of cyclists â€" such as women, children, elderly people and parents transporting children â€" point out that many of these riders cannot operate as a vehicle as confide ntly as, say, a fit young man on a racing or touring bike. Utilitarian cycling, with bike-specific transport infrastructure, is about being inclusive, addressing the needs of cyclists young and old, male and female. The need for speed is not universal among cyclists, nor is feeling comfortable cycling in heavy, motorised traffic.It’s precisely the recognition that cyclists come in all shapes and sizes, and with all kinds of needs, that has driven the last several decades of cycling infrastructure and policy in Denmark and the Netherlands. Tom Godefrooij of the Dutch Cycling Embassy writes: “Cycling is too important as a mode of transport to leave it only to the daring helmeted cycle warriors in conspicuous jackets. Cycling should not be elitist, but for all.” §Outside Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport, I see a worker giving his colleague a lift to the aeroplane on the back of his bike, an example of just how deeply embedded cycling is in Dutch culture.A bicycle is by far the best and quickest way to get around Amsterdam, local journalist Bennie Mols tells me. One new hazard he laments is tourists on bikes, who lack the understanding of how and where to ride. His description stirs a guilty pang. I learn quickly (but too late) that the hand signal for ‘stop’ is essential in busy bike traffic. Failing to use it as I slow down to navigate, I cause a near-collision as a herd of bicycles behind me screeches to a halt, one woman yelling “Seriously?” at me multiple times as she skids to a stop on the grassy verge. Wishing I could dissolve into the bike path, I sheepishly review the hand signals in my guidebook. It’s a mistake I don’t make again.Amsterdam and Copenhagen weren’t always the cycle-friendly cities they are today. In the Netherlands, as car-buying wealth grew in the postwar era, cycling rates dropped precipitously from about 85 per cent of all trips in the 1950s to about 20 per cent in the early 1970s. As the numbers of cyclists fell, disco ntent grew over the increasing numbers of cyclists and pedestrians killed in traffic accidents. A journalist whose daughter had been killed in traffic launched the ‘Stop Kindermoord’ (stop the child murder) movement. There were widespread street protests.Danish transport policy reached a tipping point in the 1970s and 1980s, when the nation veered away from urban planning dominated by provisions for motorised vehicles, towards the establishment of cycling-specific infrastructure and traffic calming. As Stop Kindermoord emerged in the Netherlands, a coincident movement grew in Denmark. The public rose up against a proposal to build a major motorway alongside a picturesque area of Copenhagen known as the Lakes. Massive demonstrations ensued. It was during this era that protesters began painting white crosses on the streets where cyclists had been killed in traffic.So while most other developed nations continued through the 1980s and beyond with road transport design that prioritis ed the needs of motorised vehicles, a dramatic change was taking place in northern Europe. The shift in thinking catalysed by public protest was that, rather than requiring children and cyclists to adapt to motorised traffic, traffic should adapt to children and cyclists. Northern Europe’s shift towards a safer, more convenient infrastructure for cyclists and pedestrians created an unplanned natural experiment â€" albeit one fraught with uncontrolled variables including car taxes, climate, topography, political differences and dependence on the car industry for employment. Nevertheless, in cities oriented towards motor vehicles, the limited provision of transport routes that safely accommodate bikes and a default assumption that riders will adopt vehicular cycling have resulted in stagnantly low numbers of (mostly male) cyclists, for the best part of three decades.“There are dramatic differences in terms of cycling rates and cycling safety between those two places [northern Euro pe and North America],” says Meghan Winters. “So I think the evidence clearly illustrates which one of these strategies is effective if your goal is to get large segments of the population cycling, and cycling safely… In a sense, this is a global experiment on that, and I think North America may be coming around now,” she says. Perhaps. But there’s a long road ahead. §It’s the summer of 2013, and Toronto traffic is a mess. In the midst of major street reconstruction and resurfacing, traffic queues bumper-to-bumper heading south on Bay Street, near City Hall. There are a few demarcated bike lanes, and only one separated bike path (not including the completely off-street routes like the largely recreational path along the lakeshore). Taxis weave in and out of lanes, sometimes coming very close to the kerb â€" the space shared with bicycles. It feels like a hostile environment for cyclists, and I do not sense much tolerance of bikes from motorists.One of the cyclists I spea k to in an impromptu interview says that it’s pedestrians rather than vehicles that he worries about most. Other hazards for Toronto cyclists include streetcars. Their tracks, which can trap a bicycle wheel if crossed in parallel, are particularly nerve-wracking. Toronto is not an unfamiliar city to me â€" I lived there for more than a decade â€" but returning to cycle downtown is not a pleasant experience.In Vancouver, however, there’s a shift in transportation thinking. I note a growing number of bike lanes, segregated bike paths, and painted bike boxes at junctions, which give cyclists a safe place to await a green light and turn safely, ahead of motorists.Though recreational cycling in places like Stanley Park has been possible for decades, it’s cycling as transportation that is the focus of the Vancouver City Council and Mayor Gregor Robertson, who cycles to work. Some of the new separated bike paths feel very safe and easy to use. But there are still places where lanes e nd in a fairly hazardous way, such as one junction where the bike lane ends abruptly only to reappear a few metres later in the middle of two lanes of car traffic. Cycling along Dunsmuir and over the bridge viaduct on the fully segregated bike lane feels incredibly liberating. Perhaps I’m pushing my luck riding a bike around downtown Vancouver on Friday the 13th, but where the bike routes are marked, or traffic is calmed, I feel relatively safe.The science of urban cycling is messy, but the case for separated bike lanes combined with traffic-calming measures (to reduce vehicle speed) is mounting. A 2009 paper that examined findings from 23 studies from across the world suggested that “purpose-built bicycle-specific facilities reduce crashes and injuries among cyclists”. Recent research in Vancouver and Toronto by a collaboration of 14 researchers, including Winters, found that “at local street intersections, traditional stops are safer than traffic circles [roundabouts], and at non-intersections, cycle tracks alongside major streets and traffic diversion from local streets are safer than no bicycle infrastructure”. Many more studies are forthcoming from the Canadian Cycling in Cities research group.Montréal is the most cycle-friendly Canadian city I visit. Even where bike lanes are not explicitly marked, motorists are generally patient and considerate in terms of sharing space with cyclists. Though definitely more hilly than Amsterdam and Copenhagen, the undulating topography doesn’t seem to be an impediment to Montréalers. Montréal means ‘Mount Royal’, referring to the steep â€" if not entirely mountainous â€" hill and park near the centre of town. The Plateau area, an uphill climb from the city centre, is one of the most heavily cycled parts of the city. It hosts the city’s oldest major bike path, along Rue de Brébeuf, a route that spans the entire island of Montréal. During morning rush hour, I see a steady stream of bikes along Boule vard de Maisonneuve, one of several bi-directional, fully segregated bike paths with bike-specific traffic lights. Bikes are also allowed in Montréal’s parks, many of which have trails for recreational or commuting use.It was in Montréal, the only large North American city to have cycling infrastructure dating back to the 1980s, that Anne Lusk and colleagues tested the safety of separated cycling infrastructure versus road cycling. They found that separated cycle tracks have lower crash and injury rates (or at least no higher) than the street, and have seen a similar trend in the USA. And research by Winters and colleagues adds to the evidence, finding that bicycle-specific infrastructure that reduces interactions between cyclists and motor vehicles can reduce the occurrence of injuries, potentially by more than 50 per cent. §So, how do we make our cities better for cyclists? Safe-cycling cities, policies and legislation already exist, and can inspire others. In Oregon, Portland ’s ‘vulnerable user law’, for example, is modelled on a European safety concept, says Portland attorney Ray Thomas, a partner at Swanson, Thomas, Coon and Newton who specialises in cycling law. In Copenhagen, in one of many chance interviews with cyclists on city streets, I happen upon a young American student â€" Mike Milan, from Greenville, South Carolina â€" who is studying architecture there. “As I’ve learned in my urban design class here, Copenhagen has tried to slow down the city to a human pace, and a human scale,” he says. His thoughts conceptually crystallise the city’s transport philosophy, and are equally applicable to Amsterdam.“Making people feel safer on bikes should not mean equipping them with high-vis and reflective helmets,” says Jack Harris, owner of London’s Tally Ho! Cycle Tours. “We need infrastructure that allows a broader cross-section of society to get onto a bike.” The places that are serious about encouraging cycling as a safe, acce ssible and pleasant mode of transport have some tough decisions to make about vulnerable users, including cyclists, in the allocation of urban space.At the Copenhagen rehabilitation centre where Ann-Doerthe Hass Jensen works, her physiotherapist colleague Daniel Thue Bech-Pedersen says: “Our main goal of rehabilitation is to allow any individual to be more active again.” This can mean being active for work, for leisure, for getting yourself around. “When you can transport yourself and make sure you lower your risk of having another stroke or whatever,” he says, “then one plus one equals three.”Ann suffers chronic pain from her foot, wears special orthopaedic shoes and walks with a cane, so getting back to cycling made a massive difference to her mobility. It also gave her back her independence. On her cargo trike, she can take her two-year-old niece out on excursions, something that would be impossible on foot or by bus. Asked how she feels at this point along her recove ry and about riding to work each day, she replies confidently and without hesitation: “I love it.” Her tricycle has given her much more than just a means of getting about. Being mobile means being independent, but even more, it means being free.Research for this article was supported in part by a journalism award to Lesley Evans Ogden from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.This article first appeared on Mosaic and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.