How Much Do You Ride?

Bike Lane Inhabitants (by [Zakkaliciousness])

A classic Copenhagen bike lane with Copenhageners doing what they do best.

We found a spot of statistics from Eurobarometer about how many kilometres a year citizens of EU countries ride bikes on average.

There is a massive difference between top and bottom.

The Netherlands.............1019 km
Denmark..........................958 km
Belgium............................327 km
Germany.........................300 km
Sweden............................300 km
Finland.............................282 km
Ireland.............................228 km
Italy..................................168 km
Austria.............................154 km
Greece................................91 km
France................................87 km
UK......................................81 km
Luxembourg....................48 km
Portugal............................35 km
Spain.................................24 km

Here's the figures for North America:
USA/Canada...................30 km

Netherlands and Denmark on top... hardly a surprise.

For us Finland's very respectable finish is a pleasant surprise. Nice one. Ireland, too.
A bit surprising that the UK is so far down the list with a paltry 81 km a year, considering the impressive push for bike culture in the country.

Spain and Portugal? Shocking. Don't give us the 'it's hot' excuse. Even Greece is way ahead of you. :-)

The figures for USA and Canada are nothing to write home about, either. But there are so many bike advocates in certain cities over there that this number is sure to rise.

All in all, these numbers have to rise. There is so much focus on urban biking these days. Everybody wants to "Copenhagenize" their cities. So much good energy in London, Zürich, Munich and many North American cities.

Norway plans on doubling the amount of trips by bike by 2015 and Sweden has plans on drastic increases, too.

Even Denmark in general, and Copenhagen in specific, are actively working towards increasing ever aspect of biking.

Work to be done, all around. Good luck to all involved.

Bike Helmet Protest in Melbourne

I had a brilliant week in Melbourne as a guest of the State of Design Festival . Loads of interviews and events that all culminated with my keynote speech on the Saturday. There was, however, an event on the Saturday morning - July 26, 2010 - that was extremely interesting to be a part of. A group of citizens, rallied together by filmmaker and bicycle advocate Mike Rubbo , decided to go for a bicycle ride together on Melbourne's new bike share system bikes. A splendid idea. Melbourne's bike share system is shiny new, although unlike most cities in the world with a bike share programme, only 70-odd people are using them each day. In Dublin, by contrast, there are over 30,000 subscribers. Not to mention the cracking successes in Paris, Barcelona, Seville and most of the over 100 cities with such systems. So, a group of people, many of them Copenhagenize.com readers, fancy a bike ride. Sounds lovely enough. They met up at the bike racks at Melbourne University. Hired the bikes wi

Head Protection for Motorists

A while back we posted about an Australian 'motoring helmet' designed to protect motorists' heads in car accidents. It was designed in the late 1980's. Then we recieved this tip yesterday. Another head protection device for motorists, this one developed at the University of Adelaide, in Australia. A serious product for the serious of protecting motorists from the dangers of driving. Despite airbags and seatbelts, motorists are victims of alarming head injury rates. Here's what the Centre for Automotive Safety Research [CASR] in Australia says: The Centre has been evaluating the concept of a protective headband for car occupants. In about 44 percent of cases of occupant head injury, a protective headband, such as the one illustrated, would have provided some benefit. One estimate has put the potential benefit of such a device (in terms of reduced societal Harm) as high as $380 million, compared with $123 million for padding the upper interior of the car. Thi

Fear of Cycling 03 - Helmet Promotion Campaigns

Third installment by sociologist Dave Horton, from Lancaster University, as a guest writer. Dave has written a brilliant assessment of Fear of Cycling in an essay and we're well pleased that he fancies the idea of a collaboration. We'll be presenting Dave's essay in five parts. Fear of Cycling - Helmet Promotion Campaigns - by Dave Horton - Part 03 of 05 Like road safety education, campaigns to promote the wearing of cycle helmets effectively construct cycling as a dangerous practice about which to be fearful. Such campaigns, and calls for legislation to make cycle helmets compulsory, have increased over the last decade. In 2004, a Private Members’ Bill was tabled in the UK Parliament, to make it an offence for adults to allow children under the age of 16 to cycle unless wearing a helmet. Also in 2004, the influential British Medical Association, in a policy turnaround , voted to campaign for helmets to be made compulsory for all cyclists (for comprehensive detail on these

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