Jack I love the commentary. I spent a few days in Belgium, Most impressive site was the train stations. Thousands of bikes. I also coundnt help notice the women had a certain natural glow. Very healthy. Not something that could be purchased at the local plastic surgery center. I definetly need to visit Copenhagen.
James Peacock long beach. CA
-----Original Message-----
From: Jack Gabus <jgabus@gmail.com> Subj: [CR]Bike Culture Date: Thu Dec 18, 2008 3:32 pm Size: 2K To: CR <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
Listers:
I love this Bike Culture thing. Only in certain cities (Davis, Portland, et. al.) in the US will there ever be a bike culture. I especially love the comparison to Copenhagen. My wife is Danish so we have had this discussion many a time. We live in Laguna Beach which is a small town and we think we have bike culture but in comparison nothing like Copenhagen. In my estimation here is why. First of all Copenhagen is flat Laguna is not. Copenhagen has also a built in infrastructure for cycling and driving, complete with stop lights and the whole shootin match for *bikes* and cars.
I have been fighting this little war in my city for some time. And as the saying goes in liberal LB we love your bikes but you ain't getting your lights or lanes. It also goes to the bigger geographical question. When you go from town to town in Denmark the scale is so much smaller. It take ten to fifteen min. to get to the next hamlet. Try that in So Cal along Pacific Coast Hwy. with someone yelling in your ear to get your spandex #$@ off the road.
Also here is the most important part to the equation ..... WOMEN. The women in Copenhagen are stunning, why you ask? One they are Scandinavian second they are in shape because they do ride a bike. I want to see just one of the gang from the list try to convince a High maintenance botox taking broad from Corona del Mar to ride a bike to the grocery store. Not gonna happen she would first run over her brand new Singer Rando with her Maserati Quattroporte to the salon than ever ride a bike.
BTW that broad I speak of in CDM could learn a lot from the gals in DK. Because the women in DK look great even after 60 because off...... THE BIKE!
I love where I live but because of Social morays and the geographical distances you have a hard sell on your hands.
My social comment for the day.
Jack
-- Jack Gabus jgabus@gmail.com Laguna Beach, CA USA
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