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| Mikael Colville Andersen during the ISPO Bike 2013 Conference in Munich |
Bicycle culture, urbanism, liveable cities: these are the
themes addressed by urban mobility expert Mikael Colville-Andersen, CEO for
Copenhagenize Consulting. This Danish-Canadian filmmaker, photographer and
blogger started a worldwide trend of chic and urban cycling with his blogs Copenhagen Cycle Chic and Copenhagenize.
His mission: to Copenhagenize the world. ‘40 years
ago Copenhagen was just as car-clogged as anywhere else but now 36% of the
population arriving at work or education do so on bicycles, from all over the
Metro area. 50% of Copenhageners themselves use bicycles each day.
Copenhagenizing is possible anywhere.’
He was one of the speakers at TEDxZürich 2012; in
fact, Colville-Andersens keynote speeches are in great demand all over the
world.
Colville-Andersen is specialised in bicycle planning,
infrastructure and communication strategies that focus on selling bicycle
culture and transport to a wider audience. In his own words: ‘85 years of traffic
engineering revolving around the car has failed miserably. It’s time for modern
thinking. Design can help. Historically, streets were
human spaces. Let’s design our cities like we design toasters or smartphones,
following the desire lines of our citizens.’ It is this important theme that Mikael
Colville-Andersen will address at the International Cargo Bike Festival as
well, in his talk entitled Bicycle Urbanism by Design - Modernising our
cities for bicycle traffic.
