Fantastic Scraper Bike Film

What a cracking film this is. Nuff said. 161k views on vimeo. Wicked.

Scraper Bike Team.

Traffic. Get Used To It

I was just reading this article "Bicyclists to LA Drivers: We are traffic" and I recalled a poster I had done last year.

Isn't it time to just make this point?

Fortunately, there is a silver-lining in the clouds of anti-bicycle sentiment. A spot of research in the UK has shown that sentiment towards cyclists is actually rather positive and it's improving. Read the good news at The Guardian:
"Cyclists! The public thinks you're cool and normal"

If Your City is Broken, Fix It.

Another poster generated from the wealth of leftovers from a job for a client.

Let me know if any other taglines pop into your mind. Maybe the text could be different.

Light Up Your Childhood

Mainstream brands get in on the bicycle market. Bike lights for kids. Hello Kitty or Bakugan. Personally, I'm holding out for Hanna Montana.

As seen in a supermarket near here.

Florence Finds Her Pedersen

There is a brilliant article that you simply must read.

A Strange and Not Unpleasant Experience
by Florence Williams for Bicycling.com
What's a cyclist to do upon falling in love with the rare Pedersen bike--except rescue a battered one from a hippie paradise and cajole its mysterious creator into reviving it?

What a fantastic tale.

Here's more of my photos of Pedersen bicycles. Didn't get a shot of Florence on hers - we couldn't manage to hook up when she was in Copenhagen.

Take from the Rich, Give to the Poor

A spot of retro Sherwood-Forest-Taking-from-the-rich-giving-to-the-poor Cycle Chic is this competition entry from the UK for the Robin Hood Tax.

Bike Share in Valéncia, Spain

Here's an advert for the bike share system in Valénica, Spain. It's called Valenbisi. 2750 bicycles in all, docked at 275 stations.

A short and sweet advert that is brimming with positive imagery. "Easy, inexpensive, fast" are the three words on one of the signposts. Perfect.

Via: Cycle Chic Valéncia.

My 27 Neighbourhood Bike Shops

View Bike Shops in My Neighbourhood in a larger map
A while back I counted the number of bike shops in my neighbourhood - because somebody asked, not because I wanted to - and I came up with 22. Or around there.

I figured I'd whip up a map to show it visually. I live in the middle of that forest of placemarks. All the shops featured are under 7 minutes journey by bike from my front door.

On the map there are 27 bike shops, and while two of them are supermarkets that have a large selection of bikes and accessories, the rest are working bike shops for repairs and sales. Some are small shops that concentrate on repairs, some are larger with a bigger selection of bikes to buy.

I'm quite sure I've missed some - or even am unware of some along some of the streets leading away from the city. And this is just my neighourhood of Frederiksberg.

Most people find the shop they like the most and stick with it. It's a cuthroat business. Locals all have an opinion about their local shops. "He's too expensive..." "He's good and the service is fast.." "He's grumpy..."

This mouth-to-mouth knowledge sharing is incredibly important to Copenhageners. When you move to a new neighbourhood, you need to find supermarkets, corner shops and bike repair shops before you need to know anything else.

Copenhagen's Bicycle Butlers - Park Illegally and get your chain oiled and tires pumped

Photo: Niels Ahlmann Olesen for Berlingske.dk / Urban.dk

The City of Copenhagen has been on a 'charm offensive' since April 2010. The goal is to get more people to use the bike racks around the city's Metro stations, instead of leaning them up against everything else.

Here's the simple trick. If you park your bicycle illegally, the City will move it over to the bike racks. Instead of finger-wagging, they will then oil your chain, pump your tires and leave a little note on your bicycle asking to kindly use the bike racks in the future.

How brilliant is that? And the great thing is that the initiative has worked.

"It's about getting people to stop parking their bicycles in areas that emergency service vehicles need to access if there is an incident at a Metro station", said Project Leader Poul Erik Kinimond, as his colleague Morten Schelbech oils a chain in the background. Twice a day they move bicycles at the city's largest Metro stations.

"We're been called "Bicycle Butlers". People really like what we do".

When the project started in April they were moving around 150 bicycles a day. Today that number has dropped to between 30 and 50.

"It's been a bigger success than I had expected. At the beginning I wasn't keen on rewarding people who parked illegally. The idea was to tackle the problem in a way that wouldn't make people angry because we moved their bicycles", sais Kinimond.

"But we haven't had one single person who was angry", added Morten Schelbech.

He doesn't think that people will begin to park illegally in order to get a free oil and air service.

"We can recognize the same bicycles that are parked illegally several days in a row. They don't get oil or air."

The "Bicycle Butler" project will continue until at least January, 2011.

Thanks to Rasmus, Lars and Charlotte for the link. Via: Berlingske.dk

Cycling Politicians - Iceland

The Icelandic Minster for Education and Culture, Katrín Jakobsdóttir, on her bicycle in Rejkjavik.

Thanks to Morten for the link.

Bicycle Rush Hour in Copenhagen

With my Copenhagenize Consulting hat on I've produced a series of short and sweet films for the City of Copenhagen's Bicycle Office. Short films on five different bicycle subjects for use in presentations when their employees travel to conferences and what not.

I rather fancied this longer version of the Copenhagen Rush Hour film - a Director's Cut if you will - and decided to slap it rudely onto the internet. Shot over a period of several months, featuring a number of locations, I hope it shows what rush hour is like in the City of Cyclists.

Most of the footage is taken in the morning rush hour, although with some exceptions. It's more concentrated in the morning than in the afternoon.

There is also a set on Flickr of rush hour shots if you like: Bicycle Rush Hour in Copenhagen.

Rush hour on bicycles in Copenhagen seems to be a popular subject on youtube. Here's a film shot by a visitor. And this one is pretty famous by now. And then there's this one.


But really... isn't this the goal? A return to where we used to be?

World's Greatest Bicycle Lock

Well, the Twitterverse seems to like this, so I'll slap it here, too.
The World's Greatest Bike Lock.

Or a practical joke. Both are cool.

In Vino Veritas - Bicycle Poetry

After posting the previous translated text from 1934, I remembered some footage I have from a summer street party a couple of years ago. My friend Henrik grabbed my camera and was walking around interviewing people, asking them "What's the best thing about the bicycle?"

He filmed one chap, rather late in the evening with all the inebriation that involves, and the result is one I've never quite forgotten. A chap fires off a volley of urban poetry completely from the hip. In vino veritas indeed.

He starts in English and then hops over into Danish at 0:48 in the film. Poetry/urban ramblings are difficult to translate, but I gave it a shot, below. It reminded me of Storm P.'s irony.

Actually, it's Jørgen Leth meets Storm P. in a smoke-filled bar over several bottles of wine. (A cultural reference for the Danes...) It's much better in Danish, this vowel movement. The flow is pure and unrestricted. It's quite fantastic.

Anyway: Danish monologue translated from 0:48:

"It's... it's Copenhagen.

People are so fantastically ridiculous when it comes to bicycles that they don't have any identity about it. But nevertheless they are so subconsciously graceful with their bicycles that they don't understand what they're doing when they do it and these days they've become so agressive on their bicycles because they can't afford that car - all to do with finances and stocks - and they actually understand Copenhagen without actually understanding, 100%, what they're doing.

Because Copenhagen is a happy city. In Copenhagen there is tolerance. And in Copenhagen there are cool people. That's what Copenhagen is all about. In Copenhagen we have a surplus so that even when there's cloud cover we don't get clouded by it. We cover our women, we have children but we stay the same because we ride bicycles. And bicycles are wheels, tires, rubber. It keeps us in contact with the ground, keeps us grounded. There's actually a shred of truth to it. I mean... how can you get angry with a cyclist? He's riding a bicycle! So there's a limit. There's nothing that can boil over or under... he's cycling.

So there is actually an aim – not aiming high or low – he's riding a bicycle. And cycling is fantastic. It's all about him and there's a reason he does it. It's not something poor prostitutes do, or something kids born later than their siblings do or something people in the future do... it's all about riding a bicycle."

Beautiful...

"Yeah, I doubt it. I had a televison named after me. It should have been a bicycle.
(pause)
The bicycle exists between us. Period."

For Cyclists - New Traffic Etiquette

For Cyclists

As there has recently been a rather tactless criticism directed towards us cyclists, it must be permitted for me to bring some modest, if not harmful, proposals for a new traffic etiquette for cyclists and other wheeled persons.

Let us begin at the beginning. You set yourself up on the bicycle, have a good look around – first up and down and then from side to side – wherefter you rest for a moment whilst regarding the road ahead and behind. Do this several times and take your time doing it. Therefter you push down on one pedal and up with the other. The bicycle is then propelled into motion. You can, of course, repeat this process, but experienced cyclists rarely need to.

You will now find yourself in the so-called traffic, unless you are riding on the island of Saltholm, but we'll assume you're on a busy street.

As soon as you've run over the first person you come across you immediately accelerate and try to dash across the intersection while the yellow light is lit. If the light turns red in the process, pretend like nothing happend and continue on – there is nothing easier than pretending like nothing happened. Those who are approaching from the side – whether in a car or on foot – will no doubt let you pass. They will think that it is them who has made a mistake. So ingrained is the bad conscience in all of us.

Never cross an intersection when the light is green, as you risk being knocked over by someone running a red light from the other direction. This is very important as it can still cause misunderstandings, court cases and outbursts of anger.

Now you continue riding. Let's say you have to turn to the left. Extend your hand – please be careful it can't be seen – to the right. This means that you won't be turning that way. There has been some discussion about this question but as a cyclist you must never doubt. Your entire focus must be on your riding.

The use of a bicycle bell is absolutely out-of-date and simply unecessary. The bell can't be heard above the noise and you should therefore only use your bell after midnight – or after you've arrived home.

During the day, instead of a bell, you should use different verbal expressions, shouted with a loud, high-pitched voice. It is recommended to acquire a copy of J.F. Braldrelunds ”Dictionary of Danish Swear Words”. It contains more than enough content for this purpose.

On corners you attempt, wherever possible, to brush the person or persons who dare to stand there. It is best if you're travelling fast enough that you manage to knock one of them over. Then you can confirm beyond a doubt that the person in question was in your way or, in other words, ”That taught them a lesson!”

If you're going from the street into a port leading to a courtyard or similar, always weave through the pedestrians as dramatically as possible. The bell must NOT be used here – remember that! If you use your bell you'll make people jumpy and it will be much more difficult to weave past them.

In the courtyard you discard the bicycle as carelessly as possible, in order to give any potential bystanders the impression that you're cool (superior in intelligence).

Ensure that the bicycle is placed so that anyone and everyone can trip over it. You'll quickly discover that the person who trips over it will pick it up and place it politely against the wall – usually under a sign that reads: ”Bicycles will be removed”.

Regarding bicycle lights, you need not take this question too seriously. Bicycle lights are simply no longer used and are only rarely seen on bicycles.

This is generally because the police aren't bothered much if you cycle without lights, as the statistics show. In 1932-1933, on the stretch between Here and There, only one bicycle light was observed. According to the police report it wasn't possible to identify the cyclist – he was riding like a madman.

An absurd idea has popped up in the minds of some so-called people who are believed to live inside unexcavated bronze-age burial mounds. Putting a licence plate on bicycles, as well as a hook under the saddle on which to hang a telephone book and a pair of eyeglasses.

The thought is incredibly impossible – a licence plate that must host a number like seven million three hundred and thirty thousand, six hundred and forty three would be wide enough to fill City Hall Square, and if you placed the digits vertically the licence plate would rip down the electricity wires.

Yes, well, those were my modest proposals for a new traffic etiquette for cyclists. We have, for far too long, been viewed in a negative manner by Mr Motorist and pedestrians – or rather sleepestrians – and I feel that these proposals will please every motorist and sleepestrian – we apparently haven't evolved any further than this in our sorry old world.

---

The above was translated, modernised and edited for clarity from the original text by one of Denmark's most loved satirists and cartoonists, Robert Storm Petersen. Better known at Storm P.. It was first published way back in 1934 (in 'Snak om en ting') and again in 1993 (in 'Udvalgte historier')

1934. Storm P. was a daily cyclist and he used satire often in all manner of cartoons and commentary about life in Copenhagen, not least about a cycling life. The above text reads a tad old school, but it is clear that some things never change. Not least bicycle 'behaviour'. He takes the piss out of those eternal complainers bitching about 'those cyclists'. They've always been there, even in countries saturated by bicycles. They are even still around if you read the letters to the editor in virtually every Danish newspaper. More now than ever in this current anti-cycling climate in this country.

He takes their view to the extreme with this text, taking their generalisations to task and ridiculing them.

Much of this sounds familiar today. Cyclists have often been declared outlaws, even when just regular citizens turning right at red lights or rolling across pedestrian crossings at 4 km/h.

I love Storm P.'s angle. Some things never change so behavourial campaigns aimed at cyclists are probably a considerable waste of money. Focus instead on tackling the destructive capabilities of the automobile.

More on Robert Storm Petersen in Danish and in English. There is also a museum in his honour in Copenhagen.

Coca Cola on the Bicycle Bandwagon

Coca Cola, like an army of companies before them, have gotten on the bicycle bandwagon. The bicycle is hip, nostalgic, futuristic and oh so very now. Say what you like about Coca Cola, every bit of positive portrayal of Citizen Cyclists on wheels is welcome.

Via: Cyclelicious.

Keep Posties Cycling - Bike Ride

On 27 August a group of cycling postmen and postwomen, politicians and cycling campaigners will deliver the letters to Royal Mail’s new Chief Executive Moya Greene. The event will create some media attention and hopefully lead to a reviewing of the Royal Mail’s arbitrary plan to phase out cycle delivery.

Keep Posties Cycling - Friday 27 August

A week today, CTC will deliver hundreds of protest letters to Royal Mail's new Chief Executive to demand she reconsiders the decision to phase out cycle delivery. Please send your letters in today (all you have to do is fill in our online form on www.ctc.org.uk/royalmail ). We will deliver the letters on Friday 27 August at 8.30am outside 100 Victoria Embankment EC4Y 0HQ. If you can join us, or if you own an old postal bike or old Royal Mail uniform, please get in touch (campaigns@ctc.org.uk). Act now or in the future all post will be delivered by van and over a century of history will be lost forever.

Spread the word - together we can Keep Posties Cycling! www.ctc.org.uk/royalmail

Something About Worldwide Cycling

Halfdan Rasmussen was a Danish poet - and resistance fighter during WW2 - who was well-known both for his nonsense verse for children and his societal critique. In one of his books - Tosserier i udvalg from 1960 he included a satirical song/poem that rings incredibly true in 2010. The illustration, above, is from the poem, picturing a devil on a bicycle.

It is a satirical piece taking the piss out of motorists and their disdain for cyclists. It dates from 1960 when urban planning in Denmark was already starting to revolve around the car and people were buying them in large numbers. Cycling levels were falling and - like we see even today here in Denmark - cycling was getting a heap of bad press.

It is incredibly difficult to translate it quickly, not least because it's designed to rhyme in Danish, but here's the meat in the sandwich:

Something About Worldwide Cycling
Speech given at KDAK's AGM by the President of The SADMBIIPD Party
"Sammenslutning af Dannebrogsmænd med benzindrevne indretninger købt på dollarbasis" or "Union of Danish Patriots with Petrol Driven Vehicles Bought with Dollars"

Dear party members! Those who are gathered here today to speak about the motorists' cause
know all too well that it isn't Hamlet or Van Gogh that are society's motor today.

He who wants to feel must learn to hear the motor-driven song in his blood
if he wishes to follow the times and drive the past farther behind us.

As we all know our chosen party is elected legally by the voters
with percentages from the agricultural and heavy-machinery industries.

But if our party will be known as one that honourably pays its debts
it is, however, here we must danse and leap if we are to profit from society.

There is, however, one thing that makes our fight difficult, in every respect;
People with a knife up their sleeves
who knock the lamp out of our hands in order to build foundations on sand

These methods and this fanaticism, pretending to be something they're not
label themselves as savage cyclists that is financed by foreign powers!

Those of us who drive our cars to our daily chores, to watch over our proud old nation
meet each day, both here and in Herning, the pedalling provocation of the masses

Nothing is sacred for these subjects who create chaos and remote-controlled defiance
in order to profit from future generations who have a completely different currency than us!

Therefore, and without wavering one bit, but because of reasons that demand an answer
we should stand firm and fight these tormentors - in order to preserve the tormentors we have.

Those who wish to cycle must cycle on the path, in a democratic and noble way
Because like it says in the encyclopaedia, pigs in fine clothes are still just pigs!

So we must and will fight like lions and strike these mad dogs of cycling
before they maul us all, large and small.

It is cycling that threatens the nation, the king and the long arm of the law
It is cycling that squeezes the lemon, like a baby hyena at it's mothers breast

Countrymen and farmers, from Jutland and Denmark alike, at home and abroad, at sea and on land!
Like Holger Danske we throw down our gloves and shout at every cyclist, 'STOP'!

Stop, because you're driving our country into the ditch!
Stop before the hour to light your bike lights arrives
The abyss before us is enormous. The canyon is wider still.
The greatest day will be that when the cyclists leave!

Sound familiar? :-)

Thanks to Hans for the poem.

Where There's a Will, There's a Cycle Way

More playing around. Displacement activities make the world go 'round.

Bas from Cycling Evolution sent me this photo:

Taken at the Stasi Museum in Berlin and "reflecting a world of (eco)resistance in the DDR period", as Bas put it. It inspired me to whip together the poster above. It reads "Where there's a will, there's a cycle way."

Rational Editorial from The Edmonton Sun

What a surprising - and welcome - editorial in the Canadian newspaper The Edmonton Sun, entitled Bike Helmet Law Premature.

Is rationality the new fear-mongering?

"We live in the age of the “easy answer,” of belief dominating fact, because everyone has an outlet for expression, no matter how hideously uninformed they may be.

It’s a real problem when it comes to respecting the balance between individual liberties and public safety and civility.

When the nature of a debate has become so muddied by personal and special interests, it’s usually a good time to step away from it and assess reality. A proposal for an adult bike helmet law in Alberta is one such example.

Much of what we learned about bike helmets growing up is no longer true. Accepted standards for helmet construction have changed multiple times, and even some of those certified by national safety bodies have failed miserably in testing to protect their wearers.

So we don’t really know which helmets to trust. One independent study showed the most common design of modern moulded helmet might actually be contributing to head injuries, due to the hard outer shell compressing the inner foam lining more quickly on impact than it takes for the lining to absorb the head’s impact.

It’s easy for the pro-helmet side of the debate to point to grotesque statistics, like the fact that there are about 70,000 bicyclist head injuries in North America every year. But as one U.K. statistician pointed out, you’re as likely as a pedestrian to be killed in a road accident as you are if you’re a cyclist.

There are a lot of injuries to cyclists, and there are lots of accidents between them and other vehicles. But very few of them actually result in fatalities.

So, as much as safety experts would like to follow the modern trend of framing civil liberties debates as simple black-and-white issues — witness the plethora of half-truths and outright lies associated with the anti-smoking industry, for example — the bike helmet issue is not resolved.

Comparisons with seat-belt laws are not apt. The reality is that mandatory belt laws are demonstrated to lower fatality rates in every jurisdiction in which they’ve been introduced. The same cannot be said of bicycle helmets.

Were they able to concretely provide some evidence not only that helmet laws work but that helmet standards are sufficient, this wouldn’t be a debate. The fact that it is means the word “mandatory” should come off the table."

Via: Editorial from The Edmonton Sun.
More information about Canadian helmet laws.

New Communique from PDOT

The People's Department of Transport in Portland - PDOT - have issued Communique #4.