Events
Laura Domela told us how she took the photographs that form the body of her book, Fietsen. Sitting at her bedroom window, she had little time to choose who to photograph. As an endless stream of people would cycle in front of her, she started shooting and ask questions later 
. Indeed it was only later when she blew the images up, that she discovered the richness and diversity of the subjects: it is truely a fascinating portrait of the Dutch.
This year Architecture Week coincides with Bike Week and architectural firm Feilden Clegg are organizing two major events that link the two: a series of architectural bicycle tours of London, and the Bike Shed Competition, in conjunction with Blueprint Magazine. Stephanie Laslett put the competition in context by showing several pictures of best-practice examples, such as the Swiss bike parking tree and Amsterdam multi-storey bike park.
William and Edward Stevens presented their planned circumpedalation of Great Britain on tall bikes: five months of coastal riding will start on April Fools Day from Buckingham Palace. They will regularly update an online diary and are still welcoming donations.
Paul Gannon contrasted Dutch, German and Danish urban design with the farce we see in British towns (chronicled by Peter Owen, and recently picked up by the BBC (see below)). It is a chicken and egg situation: Councils don’t take cyclists seriously and refuse to invest money or brain power in making cycling safe and thus the perception of danger remains and prevents the majority to adopt the most practical way of moving around. Contrast this with Amsterdam, which not only has a fantastic cycling infrastructure, but it will also invest €100million in the next five years to improve it. This is further proof of the willingness by Dutch authorities to make tough political choices; Paul reminded us that in the 60’s there was a strong lobby to pave over the canals to increase for motor vehicle movement and parking; the proposal, masquerading behind a facade of progress, was thankfully defeated. Paul urged London to make similar corageous choices.
Adam Thorpe is a member of the the Bikeoff research team and he gave an insightful preview of the team’s finding. They have been cataloguing the way people lock their bikes, the tools and tricks thieves use, and the different bike stands. Some of the lessons:
For our Amsterdam evening we had an inspiring series of talks:
. Indeed it was only later when she blew the images up, that she discovered the richness and diversity of the subjects: it is truely a fascinating portrait of the Dutch.Ideas workshops are now taking place in universities throughout the UK and the results of these, plus a curated exhibition of innovative solutions worldwide will be held throughout the Biennale Week
At the end of the campaign, the total funds raised will be divided between Re~Cycle, Sustrans and Cyclemagic Community Projects.
- CCTV monitoring is useless – try to park where other people see the bike;
- if you chain your bike against a post, look up – can thieves just lift the bike?
- When you chain your bike, don’t leave the lock touching the ground; it is easier to brake
He also has a long list of recommendation for local authorities regarding siting, design and policing. To emphasise how crucial the fight against bike theft is, he quoted the following statistics (from 1997):
17% of cyclists experience bicycle theft. Of these 24% stop cycling and 66% cycle less often.
Many thanks to all the brilliant commentators and to the guests who contributed to a lively evening.
See you all next month on 19th April, when Berlin will be the source of inspiration.
Image from Fietsen. We have a few signed copies. £22.50.
Article posted Saturday, March 18th, 2006
2 Responses to Next stop, Berlin
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tried the bikeweek event search, but got zero results for here/anywhere/everywhere! Oops!
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