Newsletter #8

Newsletter.August 2012 Content New manual for promoting active transport for school children U.S. city planners seek inspiration on Danish cycle tracks Changing the story about bike touring Cycling Embassy of Denmark goes to Vancouver!

Published by Cycling Embassy of Denmark www.cycling-embassy.org info@cycling-embassy.org

New manual of structural ideas promoting active transport for school children The Danish Cancer Society recently published a new manual on how to make Danish school roads more bicycle friendly and thereby increase the level of physical activity among school children.

By Henriette Jensen, The Danish Cancer Society

The Danish National Board of Health recommends 60 minutes of physical activity per day for children. The activity must be at moderate to high intensity. If the activity is spread along the day, each period has to be continuous for a minimum of 10 minutes. Active transportation that exceeds 10 minutes, such as cycling to school, counts in the daily 60 minutes of physical activity.

Changing inactive children’s habits to encourage them use the bicycle to go to school involves a significant health benefit. Children who ride their bike to school also use the bike for the remainder of the day, thereby being more physical active than children who do not.

Based on recent years of experience with cycling, The Danish Cancer Society found the need for a manual pointing out best practices for structural measures, aimed towards active transportation to school. The purpose of the manual is to guide public officials and politicians in municipalities by demonstrating a series of best-case structural measures that have motivated other children to cycle to school.

Easy measures, good results Having safe routes to school is a critical precondition for more children to walk or cycle to school on their own. The initiatives collected in the manual are efficient and inexpensive, and each is described so they can be implemented with ease – and results. The initiatives were selected because they represent realistic and effective solutions. There is no reference to expensive construction

projects; on the contrary, several of the solutions are inexpensive and can be readily implemented in many places.

The health effects of cycling instead of taking the car is visible in a reduction of the health costs and increasing life expectancy, which benefits the society and the individual cyclist. Overall, an investment in bicycle-friendly roads to school has a payback time of a few years, because the one-time expense often replaces current expenditure on transportation and health. 1 1 Collection of Cycle Concepts 2012 p. 17

Transport and health go hand in hand – also in the municipalities Municipalities should strive to work across departments, so that the municipality’s ongoing work on infrastructures is seen in connection with its multifaceted interests in safe routes to school for children who are healthy and ready to learn.

Compiling the many interests of a municipality ensures the biggest benefit for the citizens.

The Danish Cancer Society hopes that the municipalities, with the help of the manual, will target the bicycle as the obvious choice

of transportation when children are going to school. It is a proven fact that physical activity prevents lifestyle diseases, including cancer.

When more children are using a bike daily, it creates a basis for healthy habits that, along with other things, prevents cancer.

Download the manual “Healthy and Bicycle-Friendly School Roads” here: www.cancer.dk/bike.

U.S. city planners seek inspiration on Danish cycle tracks In June, 19 influential politicians and city officials from Portland, Chicago, and San Francisco, plus members of Bikes Belong, toured Denmark visiting the cycle cities Aarhus, Odense, and Copenhagen to study Danish cycle solutions under the headline: ”Experiencing the Most Advanced Bicycling Environments on the Planet.”

Pablo Celis from Aarhus Cycle City explains the communication value of an air pump for cyclists.

By Charlotte Kjær Petersen, Gottlieb Paludan + Public Arkitekter

Danish cycle solutions are among the furthest developed in the world, and the Danish mainstream bicycle culture has caught the eye of the world - including several American cities that have begun working to make space for bicycles.

Bicycling is growing in nearly every major American city, and our politicians, planners, and designers are eager to learn how to make bicycling a safe, comfortable, and rational choice for getting around.

-- Zach Vanderkooy, Bikes Belong The Americans wanted to experience various cycle solutions firsthand and find inspiration for new, concrete cycle-promoting solutions in their respective hometowns. Each of the three cities is already well under way to improve conditions for cyclists and has worked out very specific visions and objectives to increase the cycle modal share by improving the physical conditions for cyclists.

In addition, we passed Denmark’s first cycle street, Mejlgade, optimised parking solutions, cycle stalls, covered bike racks, various air pumps, and info stands for cyclists.

Danish cycle solutions 1:1

Willing to learn

Pablo Celis, from Cycle City Aarhus and Gottlieb Paludan + Public Arkitekter had the pleasure of hosting the delegates in Aarhus.

The visit in Aarhus was centred around a 19-kilometre bike trip. The route led the group through the city centre’s sophisticated cycle solutions

Their visit to Aarhus made a great impression on the delegation.

The most inspiring part of visiting Aarhus for Americans is seeing that EVERYBODY uses the bike; old people, young people, men, women, kids. In America, bicycling is a sub-culture of unique individuals,

which support the centre’s tight and mixed traffic, and to solutions on more scenic routes to the suburbs by the area Egå Engsø, where we saw parking facilities for multi-modal transport – which the delegates had expressly wanted to see.

mostly young, brave men. Seeing a city where bicycling is so safe and ordinary that anyone can do it is very powerful.

- Zach Vanderkooy, Bikes Belong Among other things, the group highlighted the way that the suburbs are

con-nected with the city centre, the architecturally well-planned cycle solutions, the city’s focus on offering solutions for multi-modal transport, campaigns to encourage the citizens cycle despite the hilly landscape, innovative solutions, and not least the guts and guile to continue to improve the conditions for Danish cyclists.

“The best part of the trip was seeing first hand the positive effects that cycling has on the quality of life in Denmark. Seeing the final product [cities with world-class bicycling infrastructure] sparked my imagination on infrastructure improvements that can be made in US cities to increase bicycling.”

- Harry Osterman, Alderman 48th Ward, Chicago

Clearly, ’the Danish model’ continues to inspire others, and we look forward to continuing the dialogue with the American politicians and cycle organisations. Thank you Bikes Belong for stopping by Aarhus for a fruitful and interesting day.

Changing the story about bike touring When the Danish Cyclists’ Federation and its partners rebuild the service structures around the Danish parts of the North Sea Route and the Berlin-Copenhagen Route, they will draw on best-practice cases from all over Europe.

Around 5,000 cyclists venture the Copenhagen-Berlin Route in its entirety every year. The Danish part of the route will receive a complete makeover in the coming years, as will 560 km of the North Sea Route. Photo: Cyklistforbundet/Mikkel Østergaard

By Elizabeth Frederiksen, Danish Cyclists’ Federation

”Powered by Cycling: Panorama” is the ambitious title of a grand new project initiated by the Danish Cyclists’ Federation. The project’s goal is to help the ailing tourism industry along the Danish coasts by adding a bicycle ‘experience’ to holiday goers’ visits to certain coast destinations.

Project Manager Jesper Pørksen explains the long name of the project: “The word Panorama was chosen because it describes well what awaits you along the Danish coastline: a splendid view of the seas and of the infinite sky above the flat and bicycle-friendly Danish landscape.

Powered by Cycling refers to the more serious part of the project: That bicycle tourism is one of the means for inducing growth in remote coast areas.”

Coastal tourism in decline And growth is needed. Tourism in Danish coastal areas has suffered a decline in visitors in the past decade.

The reasons are many, but one major explanation is the lack of activity.

“The Panorama project will provide holiday goers with an activity and an opportunity for a unique experience,” says Jesper. “Our main assets are the North Sea Route and the Berlin-Copenhagen Route, which run along the Danish west and east coasts, respectively. These routes are internationally renowned, and we believe many tourists will find it attractive to cycle on these iconic routes.”

A number of local route suggestions connecting the iconic routes with local attractions are being developed to lure non-cycling holiday goers from their sun beds to the saddle.

These route suggestions will also provide touring cyclists with an excuse for making a stop in otherwise quickly-passed coastal towns.

Best practices The Danish Cyclists’ Federation has long served as a think tank on bicycle tourism, collecting and distributing facts, knowledge, and ideas. Initiatives in countries like Germany and Switzerland, which have invested heavily in bicycling as a leisure activity, have been followed closely.

Armed with its knowledge and examples of best practices, the Federa tion is now talking with municipalities and others about how to build a ‘bicycle-friendly’ infrastructure along the coastlines. But according to Jesper, this is the easy part of the project: “What is difficult is to prove to the tourism industry that not only are bicycling opportunities demanded; bicycle tourists are also great customers. The common belief is that cyclists bike all day, eat a pack of toast, and camp in a tent. However, our database shows that most often tourists on bicycles are ‘empty nesters’ with money to spend and a huge appetite on the good things in life.

We need to change the perception.”

Facts • “Powered by Cycling: Panorama” has a budget of € 3,3 m and is co-financed by the European Union under the preparatory action “Sustainable Tourism.”

• The project runs until 2015.

• For further information, please contact Project Manager Jesper Pørksen jep@cylistforbundet.dk.

Cycling Embassy of Denmark goes to Vancouver!

Vancouver, Canada, opened its arms and streets this June to host the world’s largest conference on cycling, Velo-city. Twenty bicycle ambassadors from Denmark crossed the Atlantic to meet other bicycle experts, politicians, and NGOs from across the globe to share their knowledge of how to promote cycling.

By Marianne Weinreich, VEKSØ

A First Nations welcome The conference started with a First Nations welcome ceremony and an inspiring speech by Gil Penelosa, which earned him a standing applause from the 700 delegates.

Altogether, the conference featured a long list of interesting presentations.

The Cycling Embassy of Denmark contributed with thirteen presentations on bicycle tourism, cycle campaigns for children, traffic safety, bicycle parking, cargo bikes and trailers, cycle score, the Danish State Railway’s successful venture of making it free to bring your bike on the S-train, and challenges and solutions in Danish cities like Copenhagen, Frederiksberg, Odense, and eleven other Nordic cycle cities. The presentations are available for download at www.cycling-embassy.dk.

Meet the Danes!

As usual, the conference also included a large exhibition where producers, consultants, and various cycle organisations were ready to present products and services, and share knowledge and materials with the delegates.

The Cycling Embassy of Denmark’s stand was busy from morning till night. We had the pleasure of talking to bicycle enthusiasts from all over the world, learn about their experiences, and present some of the Danish solutions we have to offer.

Among other things, we handed out 300 copies of the “Collection of Bicycle Concepts 2012.” Getting to meet so many happy, interested, and inspiring people at the stand was worth the trip alone.

Many delegates dropped by the Cycling Embassy of Denmark’s stand at Velo-city. Thank you for coming to see us.

Thank you for cycling Rather than just telling the delegates about how we reward our cyclists in Denmark, we decided to show them by handing out bags of fruit saying “thank you for cycling” just like we do in many Danish cities. The bags were very well received.

Randy Neufeld awarded The conference ended with a plenary session on June 29. Among others, Dr. Poul Tranter made an inspiring presentation about the importance of creating child-friendly environments in cities. Randy Neufeld, Director of SRAM Cycling Fund, was awarded with the Cycling Embassy of Denmark’s Leadership Award for Cycling Promotion 2012 at the conference. Several prominent cycle advocates had been discussed as candidates, but in the end, all agreed on awarding Randy Neufeld.

Chairman Troels Andersen gave the following reasons for honouring Randy Neufeld: “This year, the award goes to a man who has a hands-on approach to cycling promotion, and who is always ready to support cycling promotion initiatives. Since the start of his career as a cycling advocate, he

has inspired by his example and has gone from being an activist to being an extremely influential figure for decision makers shaping transportation policy. His continuous personal and professional devotion to promotion of cycling worldwide from Chicago to Eastern Europe has made him the natural choice for this year’s award.”

Dea Seeberg from VEKSØ says ”thank you for cycling” to the delegates at Velo-city.