Three cheers for a blog that gives the lie to the silly idea that riding a bike in town is odd. Welcome Copenhagen Cycle Chic!
The mass media have stereotyped city cyclists for years as Lycra-clad boy and girl racers, hooning through the streets, scattering children and little old ladies in our wake.
The Cycle Chic photo-blogs give us ammunition to demonstrate reality: most people riding round town are wearing their regular clothes, and some of them are well-dressed beyond the dreams of shabby Daily Mail scribblers.
Copenhagen Cycle Chic is the momma of them all. If there’s a better way of demonstrating that riding bikes is a normal part of life for millions of people in Europe, then we’re yet to see it.
We’d even say that Copenhagen Cycle Chic helped spark a revolution in the expectations of British urban cyclists. Where we were once content to accept that a white stripe two feet from the kerb was as much provision as we could expect, many of us now realise that what’s needed for cycling to become really popular is top-quality bike paths – like Denmark’s or the Netherlands’.
Would we have known this without Copenhagen Cycle Chic? All these images of stylish regular folks – and especially women, lots and lots of women – riding as part of everyday life gives us an inspiring glimpse at utopia.
And that’s why we love Copenhagen Cycle Chic.
