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Thursday, November 5, 2009

Wonderful, wonderful Copenhagen!

Wonderful show! - made me want to move to Copenhagen immediately - and maybe I will if we persist with our helmet laws.

http://www.abc.net.au/foreign/content/2009/s2732204.htm

My youngest daughter and I are heading to "Wonderful Copenhagen" in January for a few days, and we are really looking forward to hiring bikes and cycling everywhere.

This programme raised an important issue with mandatory helmet laws and the effect that they have on cycling numbers, in particular on young women. The minimal numbers of young women cycling in Australia are directly related to our legislation - young women are the same the world over - don't want to be daggy or mess up their hair! Having grown up in Europe I do not understand for the life of me why our Parliament has so prescriptively decided that as a nation we must - so if we're minus helmets we're fined and criminalised yet if we're minus waists it's "no worries, just step right in, eat another burger and watch the telly while you're at it"

It was just wonderful to watch this show, and to feel so reaffirmed about my helmetless stance - Australia has a lot to learn, and we can certainly benefit by listening to the Danes.

Well Done to Mark Corcoran, ABC journalist of Foreign Correspondent!!

2 comments:

  1. I am very much enjoying your blog Sue. It is another one to add to my bookmarks along with Copenhagenize, etc. A further blog that might interest you is www.amsterdamize.com. It has some fabulous pictures of decent cycling infrastructure.

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  2. thanks, edward, for pointing me to that site - it's brilliant!

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