The Five Urban Cycling Senses
It’s a touchy-feely thing, urban cycling. It’s physical, organic and a feast for the senses. I’m sure the spandexy dudes get all sensory on their fancy bikes as they measure their watts or whatever they do, but this is about the Five Urban Cycling Senses in a bicycle-friendly city where your bike is your fifth limb — and all the inherent poetry involved in that.
People don’t talk about ‘cycling’ here in Copenhagen. You don’t get to work and discuss the morning’s commute with your colleagues. You may comment on the rain and whether or not you were caught in it but the whole act of urban cycling is so second-nature that it isn’t even mentioned. Which allows you to experience — and sense — a whole lot more when you’re not geeking out about your ride.
A lot of the content in this article is covered in various forms in my book about urban cycling: Copenhagenize — the definitive guide to global urban cycling. Available where you get your books — hopefully. It’s also available in a German and Polish version and Ukrainian is on the way this year — 2022.
We don’t have many cyclists in Copenhagen. What we do have is roughly 400,000 citizens in Greater Copenhagen who happen to get…
