Klaus Bondam made a recorded address to the audience explaining the benefits of having a strong cycling policy in place and what the next targets for copenhagen would be. in short, Copenhagen plans to have 50% of its commuting by bike in 2015, up from around 35% today. ambitious but far from impossible...
The bicycle in our climate change era could be regarded as a Trojan Horse for Sustainability. In other words, it can insidiously infiltrate people's subconscious ambition to become climate-friendly. By the inhabitants behaving in such a way, the city and urban spaces could become more sustainable in terms of transportation, but even more so in terms of quality of life and life style..
Jan Gehl's urban quality firm GEHL ARCHITECTS is the world's leading urban space planning company when we talk about developing a lifestyle that is enjoyable and healthy for inhabitants and businesses alike. With 40 years of practice, the company has amongst many other cities now transformed Copenhagen's city center into a bustling and lively pedestrian strip where shopping and...
In advance of the United Nations’ Climate Conference, COP15, The Danish Cultural Institute of Great Britain, Edinburgh, has launched the exhibition ”Dreams on Wheels” in Edinburgh in cooperation with The Scottish Government, The City of Edinburgh Council and The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Denmark.
The exhibition has been produced for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs by Thomas Ermacora, Etikstudio, London, and Edinburgh is the first stop on the world tour. The Danish Cultural Institute in collaboration with the Scottish Government organized conference ”Cycling for a Change”, which took place in the beginning of February in connection with the exhibition
The theme for the exhibition and the conference is to show how the strategies used in Denmark in order to promote cycling in urban settings can also be implemented in environments where there is less tradition for cycling.. The broader aim is to promote an understanding for how a more frequent use of the bicycles as transport means, from a global prospective, has a positive impact on the amount of CO2 emissions and on the reduction of energy resources. Further benefits are the positive societal and individual health advantages gained by a wider use of the bicycle as means of transport.
image-4
© Mikael Colville-Andersen
The curator of the exhibition, Thomas Ugo Ermacora, underlines that a cycling culture does not only following the allocation of funds to improve cycling facilities – e.g. bicycle lanes. The approach is more “holistic” with the overall aim to make the bicycle a part of every citizen’s adolescence. While in Denmark it is often taken for granted that everybody has a bicycle, that everybody has the opportunity to cycle at school on bicycle lanes and that this is relatively safe, one does not need to go any farther than Great Britain to experience that this is not the case.
Besides the exhibition, the Danish Cultural Institute in Edinburgh has arranged a series of bicycle events for the Scottish public as well as the conference ’Cycling for a Change’ with speeches by architect Jan Gehl, town planner Troels Andersen and sports professor Lars Bo Andersen. By showing the unique bicycle tradition in Denmark, some of the tools which give the development of cycling a positive boost, have been promoted. The exhibition, events and not least the conference have been well received, apart from a single Scottish voice which does not believe that bicycling can be successfully imported to Edinburgh due to the hilly terrain.
Throughout the whole project Denmark has been presented as a country which is ready to accept its responsibility both for sustainable development and also for personal quality of life. Two dimensions which do not necessarily sustain each other. The exhibition therefore makes a strong contribution to the branding of Denmark as a leading country when it comes to the harmonious maximization of global responsibility without compromising individual quality of life.
Translation of “Dreams on Wheels in Edinburgh” by Dorthe Foged, Director, The Danish Cultural Institute, Great Britain .