The Day Job

Sure, Cycle Chic has been around for six years now and we love every moment of the ride, but we do have day jobs, all of us who contribute to the blog. Franz-Michael, of course, is the former Danish ambassador to Afghanistan and Japan and he is currently stationed at the Foreign Ministry here in Copenhagen.

Mary and Mikael work at Copenhagenize Consulting, advising cities around the world in how to be more bicycle-friendly. Cycle Chic is an important part of that, which is why so many of the cities we work with wish to use our principles.

Above is my latest TEDx talk, this time from Zurich, about how we should choose designing cities instead of engineering them and why working for shining hearts is a more noble goal than merely accepting a life as characters in The Matrix.

For the full written text of my script, check out the article on Copenhagenize.com.

TED x Copenhagen Team and their Bicycles

Photo: Rasmus Quistgaard

With my work at Cycle Chic and Copenhagenize I'm honoured and privileged to meet amazing, inspirational people all over the world.

It's even better when you get to meet them and work with them right here at home in Copenhagen.

I spoke on stage at the TED x Copenhagen conference in 2010 about the Culture of Fear and the preparations for this year's TED x Copenhagen are in full swing up to the big day on September 18th, 2012.

The theme this year in Copenhagen is Movements. Social movements that are changing the world. Check out the line-up on the TED x Copenhagen website and look forward to seeing the talks when they are online. They will be fantastic. It's a brilliant array of important topics.

I'm honoured to have been asked to be the host for this year's conference and I'm looking forward to it.

It's a TED x Autumn for us. Apart from me hosting the day in Copenhagen, Mary Hudson Embry - Director of Planning at Copenhagenize Consulting will be giving a talk about the Copenhagenize movement. In addition, I'll be speaking at the TED x Zurich conference in October about Bicycle Culture by Design.

For now, the focus is on making the TED x Copenhagen 2012 a fantastic day. And with such an inspiring group of people, it is guaranteed to be.

And let it be known that the TED x Copenhagen team uses bicycles when they need to get around their city. It's a no-brainer. It's 2012, after all.

Tall Mike Bike

So now I've tried a tall bike. Although not in Copenhagen's North-west neighbourhood or in Portland, as one would assume. But in a distant suburb of Sao Paulo, Brazil and quite by coincedence, while working on our Escolas de Bicicletas / Bicycle Schools Programme. To read how we are putting bicycle course into schools in Brazil, there's an article about it on Copenhagenize.com.


While visiting one particular school in Sao Paulo, the team went for a ride in the community, to check out the safe route the kids will be riding to school on. Then this wonderful kid came rolling up on the bike with a For Sale sign on the front. I asked him if I could give it a try.

He showed me how to hop up onto it and I was off. Bicycles bringing people together. Nice.

The Very Best Thing in the World

It's been a bit of a hectic year with a lot of travelling with our company. It's brilliant, make no mistake. Travelling around and working on bicycle projects in cities on three continents, meeting politicians and policymakers, giving keynotes to fantastic audiences and attending Cycle Chic events. All wonderful things. All inspiring and humbling things featuring inspiring and visionary people who are likeminded in their passion for liveable cities. Best job in the world.

The Very Best Thing in the World, however, awaits me when I get home. Picking up and dropping off my kids at kindergarten and school. That just happens to be by bicycle. At the moment, Lulu-Sophia sits on my bicycle to kindergarten and Felix uses his scooter. He comes home a bit later so it's more often than not Lulu-Sophia and I. We've gotten into the habit of taking photos. Recording this Very Best Thing in the World for posterity.

Bicycles feature prominently in our lives. A car-free urban existence presupposes bicycles and public transport. I've made a conscious decision not to even mention bicycles. I don't bang on about how great they are, how righteous we are because we use them, how we "save the planet" and all that sub-cultural messaging.

I don't want my children to be conscious of bicycles. Not just yet. I simply want them to regard the bicycle as a normal part of their lives. Telling them that they are "special" because we ride bicycles risks making them feel like they are unusual. Homo sapiens are conservative creatures. The vast majority don't wish to stand out, not least children.

We have detailed garbage sorting facilities in our backyard and we sort our garbage. I don't think I've mentioned about the importance of it, we just do it. They'll get to know why it's important later. But right now, it's just a part of our daily lives. Nothing more.

Sure, this is a city where many people ride bicycles, but I still try to avoid verbal messaging. In order to condition them into feeling like bicycles are just as normal as the vacuum cleaner in the closet or taking a train to grandma's house, we simply don't talk about it. Of course, it enters the conversation once in a while. We'll talk about how windy it is and how much nicer it is to cycle when it's not raining. On the weekends we'll go for a bike ride and, upon arriving home, say "that was a nice bike ride." But we could also say, "that was a nice visit to the playground" and not mention our transport mode.

With Felix, who is ten years old, there are more and more great discussions about urban planning and transportation than with Lulu-Sophia, who is four. Although Lulu-Sophia is certainly capable of urbanist observations on her own.

I visited Felix's school class and spoke to them about liveable cities over several days, together with an anthropologist here at Copenhagenize Consulting, Agnete Suhr. It ended up with their participation in our The Good City exhibition with Bicycle Innovation Lab that we started last year. They retrofitted the roundabout outside their school to make it more bicycle-friendly. Their observations are featured alongside the work of urban planning companies and architecture bureaus. And they might just be the most rational, visionary minds in the exhibition.

But for all the thought process behind it, the simplicity remains. I'll hurry from work to the kindergarten with work on the brain but as soon as we're both on the bicycle heading home, it hits me. The Very Best Thing. We'll chat about Lulu's day, look at the things we pass, maybe stop at the supermarket. The simplicity is the beauty of it. And it makes my day every day it happens.




Felix, by and large, is independantly mobile. He rides his own bike, although at the moment, scooters are all the rage among him and his friends. Once in a while he'll get a ride on my bike, though.

It's not all about bicycles, it's about getting around our 'hood. Bicycles, scooters, walking, skateboarding. All good, liveable city modes of transport.

And talking about simplicity, Lulu-Sophia suddenly produced her first bicycle drawing recently. At left. Talk about minimalissimo. A fantastic deconstruction of the bicycle. Although we know bicycles are just damn hard to draw. The drawing in the middle is of our Bullitt cargo bike. More deconstruction. :-) Then she drew herself and her bicycle. Brilliant.

The Simple Pleasures

There are many simple things that make life inspiring. One of them is the simple act of taking Lulu-Sophia back and forth to kindergarten each day. By bicycle, of course. It's a daily joy that you can't put a pricetag on.

Mikael Chic

In honor of the man who brought us Cycle Chic, here is a little Mikael Chic.

Happy Birthday Mikael and thank you for showing us the beauty of the bicycle!

Cycle Chic Meets Muuse.com

Cycle Chic has teamed up with our friends at Muuse.com to make a film combining Muuse's brilliant fashion with Cycle Chic's eye for bicycles. We headed out to one of the many beaches around Copenhagen last Friday to shoot and here are some of the still photos from the day. Thanks to Velorbis for the bicycles, too.

It was a brilliant day. A little chilly, if you ask us, but our model Maria is a viking and she put on a brave face. We wrapped her in fur and blankets between every take and took good care of her. Most of the shooting featured many of Muuse's creations from their talented designers but we always included some classic Cycle Chic bicycle ridin'. Of course we did. We couldn't live without it.


Muuse.com has also written about the behind the scenes action from the film shoot over at their blog.








It goes without saying that when we did the mobile shots, we used a cargo bike from Nihola. Mikael rode the trike and Theis, the cinematographer, sat in the box.

Right then... we'd better get started editing the film. Keep your eyes on this space. It's coming soon. Well... kind of soon. Soonish.