feeding the five thousand » Copenhagenize.com - The Copenhagen Bike Culture Blog

Bits of bikes are spread like leaves across the urban landscape in Copenhagen.

Just got home from a wild trip to México City that involved lectures at UNAM university, royal exhibition openings and loads of Cycle Chic fiesta-ing. I'll get to blogging about it shortly as soon as I figure out what time zone I'm in.Copenhagenize the planet. And have a lovely day.

Great shot of a man marking off the position of another bicycle lane/cycle track in Copenhagen, ca. 1915.

Nice and wide. Just like we like 'em, even today.Copenhagenize the planet. And have a lovely day.

Historical photo of a rolling advert for the Svajerløb - the bike messenger races - back in the 1940's. A sign attached onto that iconic cargo bike - The Long John.


Here's a Long John in action the other day.Copenhagenize the planet. And have a lovely day.

Hey! Bikes are everywhere, now cars are here... let's combine the two!

Thus thought a certain Herre Holger Møller in a moment of misguided inspiration. His "Autocykel" never caught on. The design of the upright bicycle just couldn't be improved upon.Copenhagenize the planet. And have a lovely day.

I've always had the impression that John Pucher has been a lonely visionary on his side of the pond with his tireless promotion of safe bicycle infrastructure. Things are changing, it seems.

Firstly, this recent post from Massachussets' MassBike spells it out in no uncertain terms that a paradigm shift in bicycle infrastructure is underway:

You may have noticed our recent strong support for bicycle facilities, like bike lanes on the Longfellow Bridge. In the past, MassBike garnered a reputation as an organization that was "finicky" when it comes to bicycle infrastructure. For better or worse, we sometimes got wrapped up in theoretical debates about bicycle facilities that, even if not perfect, were practical solutions to real problems. And our official policies at the time did not give us clear guidance on how to move forward.

But as times change, ideas change. We want everyone to know that MassBike is 100% committed to promoting bicycle infrastructure, even if that means taking some risks on new ideas. Moving forward, we want MassBike to be on the cutting edge of promoting bicycle facilities, so we have adopted a completely new policy on bicycle infrastructure. Drafted by our volunteer Technical Advisory Committee (whose hard work we gratefully acknowledge) and adopted by our Board of Directors, the new policy definitively says "YES!" to bicycle facilities - whether they are traditional, innovative, or even experimental. So while, for the last several years, we have been working hard to turn MassBike into a lean, mean, bicycle facilities promoting machine, we now have it in writing.

Our new policy will guide our future actions, and support our desire to get more bicycle facilities built and filled with happy bicyclists.

HANDY LESSONS FROM OVERSEAS

Another strong signal is sent from the US Department of Transportation's Federal Highway Administration in this lengthy article highlighting Handy Lessons from Overseas on Walking and Bicycling. A very strong signal, indeed.

The article covers the experiences gathered by a team that visited Copenhagen and Nakskov in Denmark, Berlin and Potsdam in Germany, Lund and Malmö in Sweden, Bern and Winterthur in Switzerland, and London and Bristol in the United Kingdom. It's about bicycling but also about liveable communities in general. Well worth a read.

The article had a glitch when I first saw it. A couple of the photos had bike helmets photoshopped - rather badly - onto the heads of cyclists. In particular, the photo from Copenhagen was a photoshop nightmare:


The writer of the article informed me that it was done elsewhere in the organisation and without his consent. The print version couldn't be fixed, but the online version has been. A correction was added at the bottom of the online version:

Correction: Public Roads originally added helmets to two of the photographs in this article, “Handy Lessons From Overseas on Walking and Bicycling,” (pages 29 and 32 on the printed version) to conform with U.S. bicycle safety practices. However, European practice is to focus on increasing safety by encouraging greater numbers of bicyclists through bicycle-friendly policies rather than focusing on helmet use. Public Roads regrets the photo alterations and has restored the original photos to this online version of the article.

Apart from that cultural faux pas, the article is quite visionary and a true sign that times they are a'changing.

Copenhagenize the planet. And have a lovely day.

Cyclists crossing the bicycle bridge over the harbour in Randers were rewarded with hot cocoa last week. Randers is a provincial town in Jutland with about 60,000 citizens. The city's traffic department and the European Union programme Trendy Travel and Beredskabstjenesten [anyone have a good translation for THAT?] set up a table and offered winter cyclists a hot drink of chocolate goodness in the morning as a pat on the back for cycling in this year's harsh winter.

Not everyone fancied stopping - cycling is A to B business in Denmark and when you leave A you generally just want to get to B - but a number of people took up the offer of cocoa. Like Ilse Andreasen, above.

She rides her bicycle to work all year round, except for about five days when it's too slippery. She said to Randers Amts newspaper that it has to be exceptionally cold before she freezes. Good on you, Ilse.

The free cocoa is the first of a series of initiatives scheduled for the spring that will place focus on the benefits of cycling to work.

Here's the warm cocoa ready for the cyclists.

Spoil your Citizen Cyclists wherever possible. That's what we say.

Via Randers Amtsavisen.Copenhagenize the planet. And have a lovely day.

A historical photo of two classic figures in bicycle history. Two knife sharpeners. They rode about both the countryside and the city, offering their blade sharpening services to anyone who would pay the price.

The usual setup was like the bicycle on the left. The back bicycle wheel was rigged with an external cog onto which a strap was attached so that they could sit stationary and pedal whilst sharpening knives, scissors and all manner of blades. The chap on the left as a similar but seemingly more complex system.

The last time I saw one was in the city centre about ten years ago. Parked in a courtyard behind a trendy café, he was handed knives from the chefs through the window and he would mount his bicycle and sharpen them to perfection.


Here's a more recent version from the streets of Africa. Wonderful. Thanks for the link in the comments.Copenhagenize the planet. And have a lovely day.

Denmark Introduces Harrowing New Tourism Ads Directed By Lars Von Trier
This has nothing to do with bicycles or Citizen Cyclists, but it's hilarious. I think it helps if you know the work of the director Lars von Trier - Mr Miserable.

Great satire from The Onion. Thanks to Todd for the link.Copenhagenize the planet. And have a lovely day.

If there were a World Championship for Promoting Cycling Positively, the Hungarians would be the bookmakers favourites to win every time.

There's simply very little competition out there to compete with them. The Dutch would be the only real competitors. Even so the Hungarians would probably win by a spoke simply because they're working towards increasing urban cycling and estabishing a bicycle culture and that energy would put them over the line first.

The above film is for the national Bike to Work campaign - Bringázz a Munkába. Showing cycling as normal and accepted. Highlighting community. Here's another one from the same campaign, showing what many might consider to be an unlikely candidate for cycling to work enjoying his commute. Selling it positively:

The Hungarian Cyclists Federation - Magyar Kerékpárosklub - are legends at promoting cycling positively. I've had the pleasure to meet with them and discuss promotion and behavioural campaigns. They are extremely well-informed and passionate and just sitting around a table with them is infectious. Their focus is, rightly, on mainstreaming urban cycling. Reestablishing the bicycle as a respected transport option. Respecting the sub-cultural aspects but aiming high at getting regular citizens to ride. For more about that there's always the Behavourial Challenges for Urban Cycling essay.


Here's another film from the campaign. We have enough Hungarian readers on this blog to be able to muster a translation, don't we? Chuck 'em into the comments.

And here's an advert from a previous Bike to Work campaign:


Rest assured, there are other cities doing the right thing and investing in campaigns that portray urban cycling for what it is; quick, effortless, enjoyable, etc. We have a few of them in this post about How Other Cities are Promoting Cycling.

But then there are cities who haven't understood the marketing basics. Like the last film in the above post about other cities, or the laughable attempt at 'promoting' cycling from Los Angeles DoT.

If we're talking World Championships, with the prize being a sharp rise in the number of Citizen Cyclists, cities that promote cycling with fear myths and car-centric angles won't even finish the race while cities like Budapest et al will win all the amazing societal benefits to be won.

I've been toying with the idea of a series of Copenhagenize Heroes photos. Portraits of people I've been lucky enough to meet on my bicycle travels and who inspire me and Copenhagenize. Let's start tout suite.

Copenhagenize Hero #1 - Janos Laszlo, President of the Hungarian Cyclists Club. For his undying optimism, passion and visionary goals for putting the bike back into Hungary, under the bottoms of Citizen Cyclists across the land.Copenhagenize the planet. And have a lovely day.