A Nocturnal Urban Intersection

In a mainstream bicycle culture like in Copenhagen, bicycles are never far away. They're beneath you, beside you, behind you and between you. This is an intersection between two main streets and it's a place many people say goodbye before parting ways. Here's a noctural hug.

And here's something more substantial. A solid kiss - one that suggests it's not the last time they'll see each other - before they rode off into the night.

Sub-cultures talk of bike love. We prefer love on bicycles.

For more love on bicycles, check out this earlier post: All You Need is Love - And Bicycles.

Posture Postulates

We're suckers for all the posture delights that mainstream bicycle culture offer up. Even though we have determined that, from an anthropological perspective, there are only 10 ways that Copenhageners wait for a red light, there are of course accents and dialects in the chosen posture.

We love the casual feel to these photos. Like the gentleman above. Relaxing and watching his city go by until the light turns green.

A pensive moment, perhaps, for this chap. The bicycle culture version of Rodin's The Thinker?

Sitting up straight and taking a moment to consider things.

The young woman rests her elbow on her knee while waiting at the light, perhaps selecting a new set of tracks on her smartphone.


And then there is The Felix. Hanging all cool and casual on one of the many railings and footrests at red lights around Copenhagen, to let cyclists take a load off whilst they wait.

If cyclists have a bad name about their rogue behaviour where you live, it's simply because they are not provided with well-designed infrastructure. Good design inspires good behaviour.

Sending Signals

After thousands and thousands of photographs it really takes something special for me to choose a photograph to add to my mental favourites. This one, however, muscled right on in to the 'Best of' list. So cool, so classy, so elegant. Signaling a right turn with the utmost style.

This one, shortly after, is also quite lovely. Another right turn signal.

And here, for good measure, taken earlier in the day, a Copenhagener signalling that they're stopping.

Humanizing Transport

Revisiting the theme of photographing cyclists without seeing any bicycle in the shot. Just citizens moving through the urban landscape.

Transport humanization.

Show Us The Way

Citizen Cyclists

Continuing the theme of showing citizens in motion on bicycles without showing the bicycles.

Bags n' Boots

Different boots and different bags on different bikes.

Here's a classic Copenhagen way to ride. I call it Copenhagen Fingertips. Fingers lighting checking to make sure the bag hasn't shifted.

Shoulder Checking

Girlfriends having a lively conversation. But there's always time for a quick shoulder check. Love the hand-painted hearts on the chainguard.

Quiet Pockets of Time

Photos of Citizen Cyclists in motion, propelling their incredibly efficient machines through the cityscape, are brilliant and it's a pleasure to photograph them. People waiting at red lights, however, also possess a strong aesthetic quality. Quiet pockets of time that punctuate the momentum of motion through the city. Pause for thought and reflection. Fragments of time during which one has time to regard one's urban surroundings and the fellow citizens that inhabit it.

Chat and Glance

Bicycle Culture Anthropology

It's springtime. Something we love here at Cycle Chic. Something that everyone loves, not least the Nordic peoples. It's time to crawl out of hibernation and embrace humanity in the sunshine and light. To understand just how important the light is to us here in Copenhagen, be sure to read this post about Lux.

Above you see one of the very surest, anthropological signs of spring, from just the other day. Someone checking someone else out. It's one of the added bonuses of bicycle culture. You are elbow to elbow with your fellow citizens on the cityscape. Surrounded by humanity, without glass and steel barriers on four wheels to restrict your view or your sense of community.


We've had several photos with this very human, anthropological theme over the past few years, and I figured I'd put them all into one post.

Peruse our shots of women checking out men and men checking out women. This being Copenhagen, we're certainly open to men checking out men or women checking out women, we just haven't captured those human moments of yet.

Denmark is regularly selected as one of the happiest countries in the world. Every year, some journalist equates this rating with the fact that we ride bicycles and 'riding bicycles makes you happy'. That may be true in some sense, but I believe that a main factor of this happiness is because we live in cities where we, the people, are not hidden away in cars, peering at each other through rear-view mirrors. We are one with the urban landscape. We define it with our prescence on bicycles, exposing ourselves openly to our fellow citizens and to the city at large.



One of the greatest tools for creating truly liveable cities is the bicycle. Encouraging citizens, through safe infrastructure, to ride. The health benefits are enormous, the benefits on pollution reduction and fewer traffic injuries are as well.

But what also happens is that the social fabric of the city is woven tighter. Stronger. In richer colours and with finer thread.

You return to where cities use to be before car culture and the motorization of society. Places inhabited by people. With people present on the streets. As pedestrians or on bicycles. From cityscape to humanscape.

Before The Snow

Anthropology on bicycles. Crossing a bridge in the brittle winter sunshine. Passing a girl. Glancing over.


Bright blue gloves.


Inner city pair of cyclists.

The Look

Red coats have a tendency to grab my attention, so naturally my camera shutter went off as I passed by. Later at the computer I realized that I had also captured another instance of the look. A look that in this case seems to be forcefully ignored. (See large version for better detail.)

We have covered the subject before. A shot that I think can bear to be recycled is this:

It Never Stops

That urge to casually turn your head slightly, in order to enjoy the free-of-charge visual impressions of a bypasser. No, I don´t think it ever stops.

[There's a series of these anthropological glancing photos in this post... scroll down]

Sometimes [Most of the Time] You Can't Help Looking

It's springtime in Copenhagen. You can't help looking. Homo sapiens in the Northern Regions are immerging from hibernation and, after a long period with an average of 400 Lux per day, we are splashed in sunshine and our Lux levels explode to upwards of 100,000 Lux per day. Read this post about Lux to get my drift.

In the homo sapiens species we find our anthropological desire to look increases exponentionally. It's what we do. It's anthropology. It's lovely. It applies, happily, to both sexes. In a previous post from the Five Cycling Senses Series, there is a series of photographs under Sight that feature this 'looking'.

Aah. Springtime. Get ready for sore necks.

The Five Cycling Senses - Sight

The sense of sight in relation to urban cycling is probably the easiest to document and relate to. You're out in the open, exposed to elements, but also exposed to your city. In turn, your city exposes itself to you in ways that are unattainable in a motor vehicle, even a bus or train. You are in constant interaction with everything happening around you, including your fellow citizens. You see so much. You see the buildings, the sky, the clouds, unrestricted by the glass and roof of a car.

In Nordic countries, light is a powerful drug. When you can ride through a winter's morning into the rising sun, even the squinting of your eyes is a feast for the sense of sight.



Your use the city's features on a bike, like zipping along and glancing up at the clock on the City Hall Tower to see if you're late or on time.

Or the clock on one of the old churches.


You are up close and personal with the urban landscape. Watching other people interact with the city all while you do the same.





Seeing other people seeing, glancing, observing somehow heightens the sense.


There are very good anthropological advantages to having an unrestricted view.




You get to regard those fellow citizens that you find attractive while they are in motion, moving through the city, using the city. Seeing a gorgeous man or woman in the car next to you is one thing, but seeing him/her in motion is far more aesthetic. Homo sapiens wouldn't have gotten very far on the evolutionary trail if we had to choose our mates based on how they sat, motionless and sedentary, in their tents. We have always needed to see each other in active settings in order to choose.

Which men have a better chance of attracting your attention, ladies? These chaps above or this guy below?



A city is far more alive when you are alive in it, on a bicycle.

Your fellow citizens are in motion.

You see them interacting with each other in the most human way possible.

And they see you.