Today representatives from many European cities (including Brussels, Milan, Munich, Seville, Edinburgh, Copenhagen, and Bordeaux) signed a charter that will commit them to ensuring that at least 15% of trips are made by bicycle by 2020. This “urban mobility campaign” commits the charter members to promote urban cycling in cities in order to reduce pollution and congestion.
Although few U.S. cities are confirmed charter members yet, the organizers of Velo-city, a week-long event that led up to the signing, confirmed that Portland, Oregon was among the signatories and that other cities would join in the weeks to come. Velo-city claims to be “the largest conference devoted to cycling in the world.”
This news, of course, made me think of the Queen classic Bicycle Race.
Queen – Bicycle Race:
In my search for this video – I found out that to release this song in 1978, Queen staged a 65-woman nude-cycling race and a clip from the race was used as the single’s cover. The original video was banned at the time, and had to be re-edited with color added to censor out any offensive imagery. It’s apparently too elicit for general consumption on youtube but if you want to view it, you can sign in confirming that you’re over 18 and find it when you search “queen bicycle race.” That’s a pretty out-there marketing campaign for 1978 but I guess you would expect no less from Freddie Mercury and the gang.
It’s a beautiful day and it supposed to be a great weekend – so what better time to hop on your Schwinn and enjoy the new bike-lanes that seem to be popping up all over the Manhattan and Brooklyn. This is a good site for mapping out your route: http://www.nycbikemaps.com/
Happy weekend!
-Melissa
East Village to Brooklyn 