Good video from The Bicycle Mayor

[Beeping-Sleauty]

..nice vid about the initiative in Copenhagen...

The Bicycle Mayor - Klaus Bondam on Vimeo

 

[flecc]

Excellent, thanks for the link Beeps, he could hardly be a more positive civic leader in respect of cycling.

One thing I wonder though. He emphasised the importance of getting children cycling as young as possible so I wonder if they have the same decline of young cycling. Accordingly I watched the video though again carefully and couldn't see any of the young amongst all those bikers, and I know that Holland has been suffering a decline in young cycling as well.

That's been a very damaging thing here. It's startling to realise that a huge proportion and possibly even the majority of the British under 40 year olds have never ridden a bicycle at all, simply because since the early 1980s increasing numbers of parents have banned their children from cycling though both fear of traffic and over-protectiveness. When someone has never ridden a bike when young, I'm sure the chances of them taking it up in later life are greatly reduced.
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[keithhazel]

Excellent, thanks for the link Beeps, he could hardly be a more positive civic leader in respect of cycling.

One thing I wonder though. He emphasised the importance of getting children cycling as young as possible so I wonder if they have the same decline of young cycling. Accordingly I watched the video though again carefully and couldn't see any of the young amongst all those bikers, and I know that Holland has been suffering a decline in young cycling as well.

That's been a very damaging thing here. It's startling to realise that a huge proportion and possibly even the majority of the British under 40 year olds have never ridden a bicycle at all, simply because since the early 1980s increasing numbers of parents have banned their children from cycling though both fear of traffic and over-protectiveness. When someone has never ridden a bike when young, I'm sure the chances of them taking it up in later life are greatly reduced.
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totally agree..my 18 year old daughter has only ever ridden when we took her for lessons in middle school and my girlfriends daughter who is 19 cant ride a bike at all....im not always over keen myself as the roads are dreadful if you stay close to the kerb, too many fast and vacumn causing lorries passing and cars that go too fast...are just a few things that put me off...

 

[Footie]

Interesting video.
Copenhagen’s claim as one of the most bicycle-friendly cities in the world seems clearly to advocate helmets are not that important (clearly visible in the clip - very few helmets).
If one filmed in UK cities I think the percentage of helmets wearers would be far higher.
I find this interesting, because as we have discussed on the forum in the past, cycle helmets are for cycling accidents (even if they are usless over 12mph).
To say they don't need them because of all the well-developed bicycle lanes doesn’t hold water.
There were clear indications (in the film) of people cycling among traffic, etc, not wearing helmits (very high percentage).
So I wonder what their reasons are, for not wearing a helmet, might be?
Could it be they are just better at not falling off

PS: This is not intended to stir up a "Do you, don't you, wear a helmet" debate, its just an observation
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[flecc]

So I wonder what their reasons are, for not wearing a helmet, might be?
Could it be they are just better at not falling off

I think that's true in the cycling countries Footie. They do it all the time, it's mostly at moderate speeds and they know as I've found over 63 years that the risks are very low.

The position in the low countries is the same, helmets not normally used. They do sometimes have helmets on children in child seats, but even that's not very common.

There is one different factor in these countries though, they are fairly flat so high downhill speeds aren't the factor they often are here.
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[rog_london]

There is one different factor in these countries though, they are fairly flat so high downhill speeds aren't the factor they often are here.

Well, cycling is such hard work that when you come to a decent long downhill run, you just have to go for it, don't you?

I can't think of any other means of transport where you can frighten yourself silly just by doing 40+ mph - and thoroughly enjoy yourself at the same time.

Rog.

 

[flecc]

Well, cycling is such hard work that when you come to a decent long downhill run, you just have to go for it, don't you?

Rog.

To right Rog, those people in the low countries may have great cycling facilities but they're impoverished by the lack of hills.
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[Beeping-Sleauty]

Excellent, thanks for the link Beeps, he could hardly be a more positive civic leader in respect of cycling.

One thing I wonder though. He emphasised the importance of getting children cycling as young as possible so I wonder if they have the same decline of young cycling. Accordingly I watched the video though again carefully and couldn't see any of the young amongst all those bikers, and I know that Holland has been suffering a decline in young cycling as well.

That's been a very damaging thing here. It's startling to realise that a huge proportion and possibly even the majority of the British under 40 year olds have never ridden a bicycle at all, simply because since the early 1980s increasing numbers of parents have banned their children from cycling though both fear of traffic and over-protectiveness. When someone has never ridden a bike when young, I'm sure the chances of them taking it up in later life are greatly reduced.
.

...totally agree, although the very nice Mr Klaus kept stressing the importance of getting kids onto bikes early in life, i just can't see this happening in the UK, i was lucky, my 5th birthday prezzie was a bike,

but there wasn't the same level of traffic 50 years ago, or muggings by other youths on the street, or 'stranger danger', basically, we need more cyclists to calm the traffic down to the level that more would-be cyclists could see it was safer, but if peeps don't start young, they may never come back to it.

see more stuff on Copenhagen here:

Copenhagenize.com - The Copenhagen Bike Culture Blog