The Coffee Bike - the future of urban coffee

Actually, I was at a Christmas lunch at Danish Broadcasting Corp. and was rather occupied with the consumption of food and drink when I bumped into Ole in one of the exterior atriums at the broadcaster's headquarters.

It's a massive party involving over 2500 people and Ole was invited in to sell espresso coffee to the masses.

What a cool bike. Just when you think you've seen everything in Copenhagen, something like this shows up. I had a good chat with Ole, the mastermind behind the concept. All of his coffee-making gear can fit inside the cargo bike and he doesn't need electricity to run the show. It's all run on natural gas.

He tells me he spent ages finding the right gear and, most importantly, the right bike. With Denmark being the home of the cargo bike there were several makes to consider. He narrowed it down to three: the Nihola, the Christiania bike and the Black Iron Horse [Sorte Jernhest in Danish.]

The choice fell on the latter, as it can handle 150 kg in the cargo bay, whereas the Nihola and the Christiania bike can only handle 100 kg.

He customised it himself and now rides around to events to sell his tasty coffee.

Go, Ole, go! Danish design at it's best: simple, elegant, practical. We look forward to more mobile coffee bikes on the streets of Copenhagen.

Overcomplicating Winter Cycling - Why It's Bad

One of the main focuses of this blog has always been on how Copenhagen and other cities have succeeded in increasing cycling levels by approaching the subject using mainstream marketing techniques. Tried and tested marketing that has existed since homo sapiens first started selling or trading stuff to each other. Modern bicycle advocacy, by and large, is flawed. It is firmly inspired by environmentalism which, in turn, is the greatest marketing flop in the history of humankind. Four decades of sub-cultural finger-wagging, guilt trips and preaching have given few results among the general population. When sub-cultural groups start trying to indoctrinate and convert the public, it rarely ever succeeds. For the better part of a century, people all over the planet rode bicycles because they were quick, easy, convenient and enjoyable. In hilly cities. In hot cities. In snowy cities. After the bicycle largely disappeared from the urban landscape because urban planning s

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

Driving Kills - Health Warnings

I think it's safe to say that we have a pressing need for marketing cycling positively if we're to encourage people to ride bicycles and begin the transformation of our cities into more liveable places. Instead of scare campaigns about cycling [a life-extending, healthy, sustainable transport form], wouldn't it be more appropriate to begin campaigns about the dangers of automobiles? Many people in car-centric countries no longer regard cars as dangerous. Maybe they realise it, but the car is such an ingrained part of the culture that the perception of danger rarely rises to the surface of peoples consciousness. Sure, there are scare campaigns for cars out there, but what if we just cut to the chase? Much like smoking. Only a couple of decades ago, cigarettes were an integral part of life, whether you smoked or not. That has changed radically. We think that we could borrow freely from the health warnings now found on cigarette packs around the world. In order to be tho

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