Shabby Chic

Copenhagen is all the buzz lately in cycling, with their announcement of hosting Velo City 2010, the Copenhagen Cycle City video making the rounds, and lots of attention being given to the Copenhagenize and Copenhagen Cycle Chic blogs. The city of Copenhagen was certainly a big presence at this year's Velo City with a huge booth that was more of a lounge area complete with couches, a coffee bike (free cappucinos all day long) and about 8 staffers from their bike program hanging out. Copenhagen is positioning itself as the most stylish city in cycling, supported by their Cycle Chic blog which is mostly pictures of attractive gals on bikes showing the rest of us how glamorous riding a bike can be.

This whole emphasis on 'cycle chic' and a recent Copenhagenize discussion about this post http://www.heldenmerk.be/ got me thinking though: is positioning cycling as a 'status' item really the direction we need to head to get more people on bikes? I agree that we need to move beyond the lycra crowd to sell the vision of cycling. But are pictures of women cycling with designer hangbags really the key to getting the general public fired up about riding a bike? Corporate tie-ins? Yeah, that Louis Vuitton-branded Brompton just oozes cool. Good grief.

For me it is pictures like this that get me the most excited about the potential for cycling. A family out cycling in the park, making the most of a pleasant spring evening. Nothing really that stylish about them, just average folks. Maybe my photo wouldn't get many hits on a blog, but I think it is closer to the truth of the users we are trying to attract in the US.