The Life-Sized City Blog

One thing we've being going on about here at Copenhagenize for six years is the importance of promoting cycling positively to the great untapped well of potential cyclists. The 99%, if you will.   Two years ago, Copenhagenize informed you about a research project that was funded by the national bicycle fund entitled Effective Bicycle Promotion - Development of methodology to determine the effect on messages regarding marketing of bicycle traffic. We had teamed up with Thomas Krag Mobility Advice to investigate how promoting cycling with positive imagery was more beneficial than using images involving fear or perceived fear.  Two years on, the results of the study are in. Have a read. And now, more than ever before, endeavour to sell urban cycling to the 99% with positive messaging. Bicycle Marketing Messages: What Matters.  The report, collated by Sidsel Birk Hjuler and Thomas Krag, reveals some of the most important ingredients for the creation of ...

Open publication - Free publishing - More bicycle Our friend and colleague Thomas Krag presented this paper early in the millenium and we've long since thought it appropriate to translate it into English. At long last we're happy to present it here. We used some of the findings in an earlier article here on the blog - Save a Street - With Bicycles ! There is often a conflict of interest between shoppers’ wishes regarding parking and the actual plans to calm traffic in the city, i.e. the efforts to promote bicycle traffic. In addition many retailers are of the opinion, that cyclists are not good customers. There are a good number of studies available regarding shopping and traffic behaviour, and attitudes towards the two, that can help bring some perspective into this discussion. This paper will deal with: - general trends in shop and retail development - current knowledge of relation between transport and shopping patterns - views and facts regarding types of cust...

A couple of years ago the national government announced a economic package for promoting cycling and building infrastructure. We posted about it in "94 Billion for Bikes" in early 2009 . In the latest round of project funding, we at Copenhagenize Consulting received funding for two different projects. One is Bicycle Innovation Laboratory - Denmark's first Cultural Centre for cycling (more on that in the coming days) and the second project is a research project regarding marketing bicycle ridership. We have teamed up with Thomas Krag Mobility Advice in the application and the project. Tomorrow we have a focus group seminar with various professionals to gain feedback moving forward. It's a very exciting project and we're looking forward to the continued work. We have had interest from a number of large cycling organisations about a further development, as well. On this blog we often highlight positive campaigns for promoting cycling - as well as the negative ...

It's a pleasure for Copenhagenize to publish an article by one of Denmark's great thinkers regarding bicycle culture. Thomas Krag has a Masters degree in Chemistry but for many years he has been closely involved with Danish and international bicycle culture. He was the head of the Danish Cyclists' Federation [DCF] from 1986-2000 and he now runs his own consultancy Thomas Krag Mobility Advice . Thomas' Cycling, Safety and Health article discusses risk perception and how we (often wrongly) measure risk and goes on to highlight how safe cycling is as well as showing the health benefits of having high numbers of bicycle users/Citizen Cyclists in a city or country. Thomas' work has been a great inspiration to me over the past four years. He has been a bit off the bicycle radar for a time, but his rationality and academic approach is much needed in Denmark and internationally. Thomas Krag has tremendous knowledge and experience in all aspects of bicycle culture and stati...