An occasional update on items from the Velo-city.
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HOW THIS PICTURE LAUNCHED A CYCLING MOVEMENT
According to Mikael Colville-Andersen:
Six years ago while riding a bicycle to his job at Danish Broadcasting in Copenhagen, Colville-Andersen snapped a picture of an elegantly-dressed woman, posted it on Flikr and watched in amazement as people from around the world posted comments and started asking questions.
Why was she wearing such stylish clothes while riding a bicycle? How can she peddle a bicycle while wearing boots with heels? Why is she riding a bicycle when it is so cold? Do a lot of people in Copenhagen cycle during the winter? What kind of cycling infrastructure do you have there anyway?
Copenhageners dressed in elegant and stylish clothes ride bicycles all the time — to work or out for an evening, warm weather or winter. So Colville-Andersen started the blog Copenhagen Cycle Chic.
“And it just exploded in my face,” he said.
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THE GENDER GAP
From Atlantic Cities:
The big question, of course, was what kept more women from biking. Men and women gave several of the same reasons for not riding, including distance from campus and to need to carry things, but the biggest disparity was a safety concern regarding nearby car traffic. While 43 percent of women cited that concern as a reason they didn’t ride, only 28 percent of men said the same.
A related concern — lack of bike lanes — also showed a pretty big gender gap, with 37 percent of women citing the reason, to 30 percent of men. (Respondents could choose more than one reason.) When the researchers analyzed the figures in closer detail, they found that being within half a mile of a bike trail or path was significantly associated with riding for women, but not for men.
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TIRE TOPOGRAPHY
Rough around the edges, we rarely notice the unique landscape that evolves from regular wear and tear on our bicycle tires – this illustration draws on that familiar-yet-foreign topography.
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LOSE THE HELMETS
From the New York Times:
In the United States the notion that bike helmets promote health and safety by preventing head injuries is taken as pretty near God’s truth. Un-helmeted cyclists are regarded as irresponsible, like people who smoke. Cities are aggressive in helmet promotion.
But many European health experts have taken a very different view: Yes, there are studies that show that if you fall off a bicycle at a certain speed and hit your head, a helmet can reduce your risk of serious head injury. But such falls off bikes are rare — exceedingly so in mature urban cycling systems.
On the other hand, many researchers say, if you force or pressure people to wear helmets, you discourage them from riding bicycles. That means more obesity, heart disease and diabetes. And — Catch-22 — a result is fewer ordinary cyclists on the road, which makes it harder to develop a safe bicycling network. The safest biking cities are places like Amsterdam and Copenhagen, where middle-aged commuters are mainstay riders and the fraction of adults in helmets is minuscule. …
Recent experience suggests that if a city wants bike-sharing to really take off, it may have to allow and accept helmet-free riding. …
In her study of nascent bike-sharing programs in North America — including Montreal, Washington and Minneapolis — Dr. Shaheen found that the accident rate was “really low.” A large majority of participants strongly agreed that they got more exercise since the program started. And helmet use in bike programs tended to be far lower than among the general public.
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