This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008 at 6:47 pm and is filed under Bike to Work Book. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Real life ambassador becomes Oz bike-to-work ambassador
“Mrs Ambassador, with these bicycles, you are really spoiling us!”
Susanne Shine, Denmark’s ambassador to Australia, has become a National Ride to Work Day Ambassador. The Danish Embassy and Consulate will take part in Australia’s National Ride to Work Day on Wednesday 15 October.
Denmark has a strong bicycle culture: every day one in three in Copenhagen gets on their bikes to go to work. This adds up to 1.2 million kilometres on bikes each day, or one kilometre by bike per citizen each year.
Bicycle Victoria’s National Ride to Work day was recently launched by Peter Garrett, former lead singer of Oz indie band Midnight Oil, and now the Federal Minister for the Environment.
The ‘Oils’ were renowned for their fierce independent stance and active support of a range of contemporary concerns including the plight of homeless youth, indigenous people’s rights and protection of the environment.
The band’s protest and benefit shows, notably the anti-Exxon performance on a truck-top in the streets of New York and, of course, the ’sorry suits’ performance at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games closing ceremony were hallmarks of a thirteen-album career culminating in the ARIA lifetime achievement award in 2006.
NB
A PDF primer for the Bike to Work Book will be released shortly, containing nuggets of information for cycle commuter newbies and inspiration from Denmark.
