The BBC reported this week that a Copenhagen hotel is offering a free meal to guests who generate electricity from a bike. (Smiling Copenhagen cyclists pictured right.)The Crowne Plaza Hotel, whose website is rubbish because it demands you install a new version of Flash so I can't be arsed to link to it, gives guests a meal voucher if they produce ten watt-hours. That's about enough juice to power a 100W light bulb for six minutes, or the average London cyclist's back light for about six months.
What lessons can London learn from this innovative attempt to encourage cycling? Here are a few ideas currently being considered:
• City Police to offer two-for-one on pavement cycling fines: pay £30 for first offence, get second free
• Taxi drivers promise to stop swearing and be more courteous when they cut you up at the lights
• Wetherspoons encourages healthy pubgoing by offering six free pints to anyone turning up by bike
• The one free cycle parking space at Kings Cross to be offered up as lottery prize
• London Transport to waive fare for anyone cycling instead of taking bus or tube
• Cyclists offered free one-way plane fare to Copenhagen once ash cloud disperses
The press release for the hotel is here (140kb, pdf)
ReplyDeleteMarvelous! I visited for the first time this cycling heaven two weeks ago (during Volcano-gate) and stayed at the chic 'n' fabulous Wake Up Copenhagen hotel. Quite affordable and much more centrally located than this Crown Plaza, though I do fancy the idea of giving this challenge a go. The Wake Up had lovely blend in-able upright bikes for you to take out for the day so it was a WIN!
ReplyDeleteI quite like your ideas to encourage cycling, particularly the last one! I did fancy the idea of being stuck in Copenhagen because of that darnfangled ash cloud (it really is the cycling utopia I'd seen in pictures and read about for 2 years) but I'd have needed a rich benefactor to make it at all possible in such an expensive city!