For the last 4 years I have been fortunate to have a job as a Project Landscape Architect at Yurrah; I have been working full time at Yurrah and doing Vibrant Places work in my spare time. By day I'm a Landscape Architect, by night ...

Yurrah are an Environmental Consultancy and it's been great to get a Land Planning perspective on Landscape Architecture. I'll never forget it and I'm sure it will influence my future work.

But now I'm moving on and I'm very excited to announce I will be working at the new firm Meter Design.

Meter will allow me to use the skills I've obtained doing my Vibrant Places work. Their focus is on Urban Design and Masterplanning at a conceptual level.

Even more exciting I'll be working flexible hours, casually, meaning I can balance my Vibrant Places work with my Landscape Architectural work.

And there are some really exciting things I am working on right now including Burnett City Chic ... and the soon to be announced Seaside Dinner (more to come on that).

Games Night will still be on for 2013 and we have some great Special Event ideas happening soon. Lazy Sunday Cycle has expanded to Sydney and we are getting such large numbers that we are considering seeking sponsorship. We're starting to organise Brisbane Diner en Blanc 2013 and have some great ideas to watch out for.

I'll be traveling to London in September for the London Design Festival with the bursary I received for my Queensland Emerging Leader Award and will be blogging the whole time I'm there.

Thankyou for following me and I look forward to contributing more in the future.

-Amy

This was advice from Sisdel Birk Hjuler, from Copenhagen Cycle Chic, in her presentation on Wednesday at the BMW Guggenheim Lab; with some additions from me in brackets, summarising her points.

Copenhagen Cycle Chic started with a photo posted by Mikael Colville-Andersen in 2007. Colville-Andersen wanted to show the beautiful lighting of the morning reflecting off the streets in Copenhagen, but what people around the world commented on instead was the bike riders in the photo, riding to work in their regular clothes. Colville-Andersen had never really thought of this as unique, but was intrigued by their interest and started the blog Copenhagen Cycle Chic to capture this culture. The blog has been extremely successful in spreading the message and capturing the “normality of riding”. To Sisdel Birk Hjuler, who presented Copenhagen Cycle Chic at the BMW Guggenheim Lab in Berlin, the blog captures “Bicycle Culture 2.0”. Cycling in normal clothes, was normal when bicycles were first invented, but with car domination, things changed.

Other Cycle Chic blogs have started up all over the world, and as a huge fan, I have been tempted to start up one with my cycling buddies. Birk Hjuler commented that a new city starts almost every year, perhaps it is our year! There are some guidelines on the Cycle Chic website about how to start your own.

It is certainly something that needs to be promoted in Brisbane, and with Lazy Sunday Cycle and Style over Speed (which I discussed and promoted in my Powered by Pecha Kucha talk on this day) I have seen more people excepting and realising that cycling in “normal clothes” is normal. However this has not put us in Copenhagen Cycle Chic's Top 80 cycle cities. Birk Hjuler discussed the “Copenhagenize Index for Bicycle Friendly Cities” Top 80 Cycle Cities List that the team at Copenhagen Cycle Chic have recently put together the list to inspire and encourage healthy competition. I think this is a great idea, and will be striving to put Brisbane on that list!

So why is Brisbane not on this list? I did ask this question of Birk Hjuler, but I already knew the answer – our helmet laws. No Australian City was featured on their list, because of our helmet laws. They gave us a “zero” for their criteria of the “perception of safety”. 

By wearing helmets our cities are perceived as being unsafe, and I would agree completely. We do not have the number of riders to make our city safe for riding on the roads without a helmet. Our car drivers (including myself) do not know how to safely drive with cyclists around. This has got to change and the only way it can is by riding our bikes more, and encouraging more to do so! I would love to discuss my view of helmets, but will leave that post to another day.

So how does Birk Hjuler suggest that cities get more people on bikes?

1. Get cyclist from Point A to Point B quickly and tell them how with good mapping! People should only be expected to cycle for quick 20 minute journeys.
   
   
2. Apply basic marketing. Promote the positives of cycling, in the same way that alcohol brands promote the positivity of their products.
   
   
3. Stop ignoring the bull in society's china shop. Build cycle infrastructure where car infrastructure is, do not steal space from pedestrian infrastructure. This connects with the quote at the start of this post. It is also something that Berlin is particularly doing wrong, but it's actually something we could commend Brisbane on.
   
   
4. Use what you have. We have some great cycle infrastructure in Brisbane, we just need to use it!

Next week I embark on a journey to Berlin to participate in the BMW Guggenheim Lab! While I am there I will be:

• speaking about Lazy Sunday Cycle at "Cycling Fast Facts" a Powered by Pecha Kucha on Wednesday 27th June,
  
• creating a PARK with the Giant Games as part of the “Transforming Parking Spaces” on Thursday 28th June
  
• speaking at the event about Games Night along with a marathon of speakers on Saturday 30th June for “How would you Transformation your city?” event,
  
• helping with a Lazy Sunday Cycle on Sunday 1st June
  

I’ll try and keep you up-to-date on my blog with what I’ll be up to. I can’t wait to be involved with this great initiative! Thankyou to Rachel Smith for including me in the program!


EDIT: I've updated the links so you can find out more about the events.

Brisbane, I think you've forgot about an important aspect of cycling ... cycling for fun!

Cycling is not JUST about going fast, it's not just about having a fashionable bike, it's not just about getting from A to B as fast as possible, or just about wearing tight lycra; it can be about having the wind in your hair, it can be about freedom, it can be about being social, it can be about being kind and considerate to other people using the road or pathway. So Brisbane, cycle with a smile and ride a little bit lazier.

Rachel Smith and I started Lazy Sunday Cycle to encourage a little more of this type of cycling in Brisbane.

Today was our 10th Lazy Sunday Cycle ride and we decided to highlight 2 of our favourite green spaces in Brisbane - Roma Street Parklands and the Northey Street City Farm. We called it Ride from Inner City Park to Inner Suburbs Farm!

We had a great turn out of 45 rides, of different skills and different ages. We stopped at the Northey Street City Farm Sunday Organic Markets and had lovely picnic where everyone was able to socialise and chat.

A highlight for me, was when everyone patiently waited 10 minutes for a young rider, who fell off his bike, to compose himself. It goes to show that Lazy Sunday Cycle is really a positive, social, community ride. Cyclists can be kind, courteous and relaxed - which is certainly not the stereotype in Brisbane. 

The young boy is fine and was pretty happy to get a ride in the cargo bike. Thankyou to his parents who understand that bumps and bruises are a part of a child's life.
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Join us for our next ride on 3 June starting at Southbank.

And also come in your best formal-wear to this fun "Style over Speed" ride on 25 May as part of the UR{BNE} Festival 2012.

Late last year I was invited to give a TEDx Talk! I am a huge fan of TED and so jumped at the opportunity. The talk I gave is now online on YouTube.

In my talk I spoke about how important it is to make Brisbane a more vibrant place and the ways in which you could be involved in doing so. 

Unfortunately the video of the presentation does not include my slides, so below is a slide show of my presentation.

I was pleased with my presentation, especially considering I was first on stage, there were some technical glitches and while I was being introduced they had forgotten to give me the slide clicker, so I had to run back to the Sound crew and then ran back on stage! 

It was a great experience, and there were many fantastic presentations that day. I urge you to check them all out on the TEDxYouth @ Brisbane website. Thankyou to the TEDxYouth @ Brisbane crew!   

I would love, love to do something like it again and improve on my talk. I love public speaking and would be happy for any speaking roles. Please contact me if you are interested.