Copenhagenize & Cycle Chic

Voici un compte-rendu d'une conférence donnée hier midi à Ottawa par Mikael Colville-Anderson, le créateur des blogues mentionnés en titre.  C'est Cycling Vision Ottawa, groupe d'intérêt, qui a facilité la chose avec l'aide de Vélo Québec.  

Merci à Kate Jaimet qui a écrit le texte suivant pour Cycling Vision

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Stop Nagging and Start Grooving Mikael Colville-Andersen on how to sell urban cycling culture to the mainstream

Here’s a radical marketing idea:

 

Cycling advocates should stop pushing the environment virtues of bikes, and instead sell them as hip, convenient, mainstream and… dare we say? … sexy.

 

That’s the messages that Danish cycling advocate Mikael Colville-Andersen, founder of Copenhagenize Consulting, delivered when he visited Ottawa as part of his first Canadian gig to spread the word about urban cycling. The visit was sponsored by Cycling Vision Ottawa, Velo-Quebec, and the Danish Embassy.

 

Goal #1 - A2B-ism

 

Let’s face it. Most people just want to get from A to B as quickly and conveniently as possible. Cycling advocates should stop nagging people into cycling because it’s good for the planet. Rather, they should focus on making cycling good for people. Better bike lanes, better bike paths, better signage, better traffic policies … and hey, how about a better vibe around cycling?

 

Goal #2 - Positive Marketing

 

So how do you create a positive vibe around urban cycling? Not by telling people that it’s so dangerous they need helmets and reflective pant-clips. Nor by saying it’s so exclusive they need high-end bikes and spandex gear. Instead of focussing on the negative, cycling advocates must sell biking as “glamorous, affordable, ennobling, effortless, and mainstream,” Mikael says.

 

Goal #3 Stop ignoring the Bull is Society’s China Shop

 

Cars are part of our society and they aren’t going away. But in the downtown areas, cars take up as much space and cause as much disruption as a bull in a china shop. It’s time to “castrate the bull” — to put restrictions around automobile use in city centres.

 

Goal #4 Re-democratization of the Bicycle

 

For the past 40 years, biking in North America has been sold as a form of sport and recreation. But it used to be so much more — a truly democratic form of transportation that anyone can afford and anyone can master. In a culture where cycling is truly mainstream, people will jump on their bikes, instead of in their cars, for a trip to the corner grocery store.

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J'appui à 200% le but numéro 4 et à 175% les 3 autres.  On a un problème de sous-culture à Gatineau, provenant de la main-mise depuis 30 ans de l'oligarchie de Hull (les disciples du bon vieux temps d'un ex-maire de Hull) et des bike-snobs.  Les citoyens ordinaires, ceux qui ne font que 500-1000 kms par saison, qui ont un vélo ''clunker'' (l'équivalent de la Lada), qui n'ont pas le tout dernier jersey (un Adidas ou un Toyota avec des trous), qui ont une bedaine (voir mon copain Homer dans le billet précédent), doivent faire entendre leurs voix.  Je vous rappelle qu'il y a des consultations publiques sur la révision du schéma d'aménagement (urbanisation) de Gatineau ces jours-ci et l'an prochain.   

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