Woolly

Yup, time for the all the woolly stuff again. Morning temp today 8 degrees celcius.

Just to say goodbye to the bit of indian summer we had though, I give you this:

Find Your way

If your gps-equipped cell phone runs out of battery, you may want to use one of these ancient methods:
Look at a map, or...

...ask a friendly local.

Gentlemen Cyclists in Budapest

Okay, ladies, I don't know how Hungarian men rate in the global sexy lists, but I was pleasantly surprised to see decent amounts of dapper chappies in suits or nice clothes on the streets of the Hungarian capital. Above is a man riding home on the bike lanes with his suit jacket hanging off his backpack.

This chap was taking part, rather absentmindedly it seems, in a Kidical Mass - a bike ride for kids and families before the main Critical Mass bike celebration ride.

This is was my voice in Hungarian. He was the interpreter at the conference making me sound good in a foreign language. Hopefully.

This gentlemen is legendary. Laszlo is the president of the Hungarian Cyclists' Federation and my god is he ever inspiring to talk to. So passionate about mainstreaming cycling in Hungary and promoting cycling positively.

Here's a gentleman in his 'kippah' rolling confidently through the streets.

Here's a Dane on the right, my colleague Troels, who was also speaking at the conference. One of Denmark's most experienced traffic planners for bicycles, together with his Hungarian counterpart, Peter.


And here's yours truly in a demonstratively slow exhibition of Style Over Speed doing a lap at the Millenaris Velodrome. Slow Bicycle Movement indeed.

Budapest Cycle Chic

Here's some photos of Budapest Cycle Chic.

There is little effort in finding Cycle Chic in the city. They're taking to the bicycle in great numbers and in style.

Cycle Chic & Copenhagenize Goes to New York

Photo © Copenhagen Cycle Chic / Theis Mortensen

Cycle Chic rolls into New York on Sunday in the guise of... well... me. I'll be speaking at two venues in the city, so if you're around...

On Monday, 28 September 2009, Transportation Alternatives and the Consulate General of Denmark are co-hosting a lecture at City Bakery from 6-9 PM for members of TA. For more information and to RSVP, check out TA's website right here.

I've decided that I need to abbreviate the titles of some of these lectures. Apparently I'll be speaking about:
The Behavioral Challenges of Marketing Bicycle Culture: Making Bicycles an Equal Partner in Traffic

On Tuesday, 29 September 2009, I'll be speaking at Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. (I'm not the only one who need title abbreviation :-)) It takes place from 1:00PM - 2:30PM at Room 114, Avery Hall. Here it's my Marketing Bicycle Culture lecture.

The shot above is of the Danish singer Ane Trolle in New York City. Cool girl on a cool bike. Ane sings in Ja' Confetti and she has feat. on Trentemøller tracks, too.

So... tell me New Yorkers. Where to go? What to see? I've been to the city many, many times, but where am I likely to catch the most bicycle traffic? What bicycle related stuff should I see? Where's the best sandwiches/beer/etc?

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:

Wall Street Journal Goes Cycle Chic

Article in the Wall Street Journal about Cycle Chic, with focus on Paris.
'New Cyclist Styles Pedal Their Way Into Paris'

Nice to see the old WSJ with their finger on the pulse. You can read our take on Paris Cycle Chic and the transformation of the city right here.

Budapest Cycle Chic

A couple of days ago I had the pleasure of attending a Cycle Chic fashion show with my friends from Hungary Cycle Chic. I was in Budapest attending a conference where I lectured about Marketing Bicycle Culture and then there was a massive critical mass bike ride and I wrapped up my trip to the Hungarian capital with this fashion show and party.

What a cracking time. The people at Hungarian Cycle Chic are a dedicated team doing everything they can to promote cycling positively and this fashion show is really only the tip of the iceberg. On Monday I attended a meeting they had about their project and it was brilliant to see how they approached it with not only passion and drive but the all-important sociology of how to encourage people to cycle more and how to mainstream urban cycling.


It was a packed house for the fashion show. Here's the stylist for the event on the left - amazing job she did - and here's a fashion writer for a online mag called Pink.hu.

And here's some schmuck from Copenhagen with Henritte from Hungarian Cycle Chic.

I was busy chatting and drinking red wine and filming as well as trying to shoot stills, so my photos weren't the main focus. But I like this one.

See the whole set of photos from the event in a slideshow right here.

And be sure to check out Hungarian Cycle Chic's website. They've uploaded photos from the event which are brilliant.

Casual Elegance

Dunno what to add really...

Power

What´s a little morning rain, when you are wearing the magic Gloves Of Power.

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.

Copenhagen Motion

A couple near the University.

Heading over the harbour.

The City Hall Square.

More Ladies on Bikes, Please

Sustrans, the UK's leading sustainable transport charity, has started a petition on their BikeBelles website that encourages women to cycle

They interviewed 'over 1000 women to find out what they believed would most persuade them and other women to cycle more'.

'Overwhelmingly women wanted more cycle lanes separated from traffic, so Sustrans has launched our Motion for Women petition calling on governments to prioritise the creation of environments that encourage and support cycling, including cycle paths separated from traffic, as a way of enabling many more women to travel by bike.'

In Copenhagen, half of the citizens cycling each day are women. Much the same is seen around Denmark and Holland.

Sustrans has started a petition to show support for safer bicycle infrastructure.

Cycle Chic encourages you to sign the petition until November 29, 2009 right here.

Saturday

As the sun is setting on a glorious september saturday, city people are on their move.


Some may be on their way home after an afternoon in the park.




While others are heading out into the evening approaching.

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.