Auto-Mat

Our friends the urban mobility NGO Auto-mat in Prague have produced this classy poster for an upcoming event. It's called A Different Experience and it's all about allowing the citizens the opportunity to see their city in a new light on five chosen streets. To gain insight into what a city can be.

Thanks to Todd for the link.

Brno Cycle Chic

I fly to Vienna in order to get to Brno, in Czech Republic, where I was invited to speak about marketing bicycle culture. What a beautiful city. Above is me on the Christiania bike and my collegue, Lars Gemzøe, the other speaker, in the box. We nicked the Danish ambassador's cargo bike and went for a ride.

Some guy brought one of those electric bicycles - I've heard they're calling them Lazy Bikes now - and this Brnoite/Brnoian/Brnoista went for a spin.

Here's one of the homies we hung with. Looking dapper as you like.

Here's one of our friends from Brno on the left, talking to a girl on the street.

We went for a bike ride through the city with our hosts. Daniel and the deputy mayor, Martin at left. Lars with the camera, Henning, the Danish consul at the back and a Brnoian friend at right.

Prague Cycle Chic

After visiting Pardubice, Prague was quite a different story. The city didn't feature any decent concentration of Cycle Chic. The poster, above, for a new Czech film - Protektor - was the best the Czech capital could come up with.

And this girl advertising Praha Bikes - bike rental. In fact, I think I only saw 30-40 cyclists the entire time I was there.

But we're working on it. :-) I'm in Budapest as I write this and it's quite a different story. Many cyclists on the streets. More on that later.

Czech Cycle Chic in Pardubice

I arrived at Prague Airport and was whisked away down motorways and country roads for an hour and a half. I saw one cyclist on the route.

Then, suddenly, we rolled across the town limits of Pardubice, and it was almost like coming home.

Bicycles, bicycles, bicycles. The town of about 90,000 is the cycling capital of the Czech Republic and it shows. 18% of all trips to work or school are by bike and the vast majority of the people on bikes were just regular citizens pedalling about on, for the most part, vintage bikes like the girl in the photo above. It was brilliant.

The occasion of my visit was two-fold. Firstly, I was invited to give my lecture at City Hall about Marketing Bicycle Culture. The Danish ambassador was on hand to say a few words.

Secondly, there in a street exhibition of 30 of my photos along the main stretch of town. 30 photos of a Copenhagen bicycle life. I can't tell you how fun it was to see the photos out in the open like that. In a gallery is lovely, but on the streets is somehow cooler and more appropriate. Images from one urban landscape transplanted into another.



The lecture was, by all accounts, well-recieved and it was wonderful to meet so many Pardubicians of all ages and to discuss how the city can take their bicycle infrastructure to the next level.

I was whisked away to Prague, where I had other business the next day and I'll write about that shortly.

Czech This Out

If any of you are in the neighbourhood of Pardubice, in the Czech Republic, on the 16th of September, I'll be speaking about Copenhagen's bicycle culture there. In addition, a series of my photographs will adorn the lampposts of the city throughout European Mobility Week.

Czech This Out

A Czech advert for Podebradka, a brand of flavoured mineral water. Featuring that timeless icon - a cycling girl.

April Streeter, a blogger/writer for Treehugger and a good friend of ours has this fine post about the Six Reasons The World Needs More Girls on Bikes.

The number of adverts featuring bicycles is growing and growing. Here's one from my latest copy of Arena for bespoke brand New & Lingwood:

Nothing to do with bicycles, just some well-dressed chappies on them. Having fun, too.

Then there's this advert for Killah, as seen on a shop window near me.


And the cover of a Japanese bicycle magazine is true Cycle Chic, too.

Prague Cycle Chic

Photo by Jakub Turek, Horydoly.cz
There was a massive bike ride in Prague the other day, under the critical mass banner, and a friend of mine sent me these lovely photos. I have criticized the critical mass approach earlier as being counterproductive. Things are different, it seems, here in Europe. In Budapest and in Prague, the rides are as they are meant to be - a celebration. There is great cooperation between the organisers and the authorities and hardly any confrontations to speak of. Certainly not like what you see in New York. What a treat it would be to take part.


Photo by Jakub Turek, Horydoly.cz
Perhaps we have more of a tradition of protesting here in Europe. Each summer during "Strike Season", there are protests and strikes across the continent. They are a part of life - citizens passionately demonstrating for or against issues. So perhaps these European versions of the rides are just another demonstration in the eyes of the spectactors.

Whatever the case, it's lovely to see a spot of Cycle Chic in the Czech capital. Go Prague Go!