Advertising in a Bicycle Culture

Recently the Danish State Railways [DSB] announced that bikes are now free on all the S-Trains in the Greater Copenhagen area.

It was pretty big news here but DSB launched a comprehensive campaign to let the people know about it. On the busiest bicycle street in the western world, Nørrebrogade, they put up a mock S-train carriage on the bike lane. The morning bicycle rush hour on this street, which averages 38,000 cyclists a day, would find it hard to miss the advertising campaign. Whether people rode through the train tunnel or past it. On this stretch the bike lanes are double wide, around 5 metres.

When the cyclists stopped at the red light up ahead, they were given a brochure about the fact that bikes are now free on the trains, as well as a free ticket for the train. Rather cool.

Print adverts in a variety of themes about the new initiative feature prominently in the city these days. This advert on an outdoor ashtray, featuring beer glasses as wheels, reads:

"Invite your bicycle back to your place when you've been out on the town.
Bicycles now travel free on the S-trains."

The same spot in the top photos is quite a popular place for people to advertise or raise awareness about various issues.

There are few other place in the city where you can get face to face with so many people. When cyclists roll to a stop at the light - and they are often 50-75 cyclists at a time in the rush hour - you can easily get your message across. 10-15,000 cylists in the morning rush hour... that's a lot of citizens. They can't walk away from you because they're waiting at the red light and they're not hidden inside cars.

This spot sees all manner of activity. For example, our nurses went on strike a couple of years ago and they stood right here with banners to win popular support. They handed out bread rolls to cyclists. Other times you'll get handed fruit or what not with the brochures.

Below is the former 'bicycle mayor', Klaus Bondam, handing out bread rolls a while back at the same spot.

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

IKEA Idea With Velorbis Bikes

Photo: Per Wadskjaer for IKEA IKEA of Denmark is now starting a new concept at their Danish stores. They did a bit of market research and found that roughly 25% of their customers rode their bikes to the stores or took public transport - even though most of then are located outside the cities in large commerical centres - some call them Big Box Districts - which are located outside the city centre. In Copenhagen we have two IKEAs. One is about 10 km from the city centre, the other is about 20 km. I, myself, have made the former trip several times on my 3-speed, carrying all manner of cumbersome goods home to the nest. It's great to learn that so many other IKEA customers ride their bikes out there, too. Doesn't surprise me, really, that so many Danes ride to such lengths for such purposes. But it is cool that IKEA respects the fact by launching a concept that celebrates the fact. And remember kids! Cyclists make better shoppers than motorists! Photo: Per Wadskjaer for IKEA IKE

A Walking Helmet is a Good Helmet

At long last logic prevails. A new campaign has hit the streets of Denmark, thanks to the visionaries at The Danish Road Safety Council [Sikker Trafik] and Trygfonden [an insurance company]. Intense promotion of walking helmets for pedestrians has begun. This logic has been sorely missed. These two organisations have happily promoted bike helmets but pedestrians suffer just as many head injuries, if not more. This Danish campaign poster reads: "A walking helmet is a good helmet" "Traffic safety isn't just for cyclists. The pedestrians of Denmark actually have a higher risk of head injury. The Danish Road Safety Council recommends walking helmets for pedestrians and other good folk in high risk groups." The slogan is catchy in Danish since it kind of rhymes. All in all it's a brilliant project. Let's save some lives. The new walking helmets will be available in the Danish Cyclists Union's [Dansk cyklist forbund] shop. Although, as the

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