Ole Kassow | |
|---|---|
 Ole Kassow with Thorkild Thim who inspired him to start Cycling Without Age | |
| Born | June 26, 1966 [1] |
| Nationality | Danish |
| Occupation | Social entrepreneur |
| Known for | founder of Cycling Without Age |
Ole Kassow (born 26 June 1966) is a Danish social entrepreneur. He founded the nonprofit organization Cycling Without Age in 2012.
Ole Kassow was born in Odense, Denmark. He grew up with a handicapped father and brother, experiencing at an early age stigmatization and exclusion of persons with certain disabilities. However, his father's practical jokes and humour to overcome the handicaps in their life and to infuse happiness into people around them helped to develop Ole's positive attitude towards disabilities and old age. [2]
After completing high school, Ole travelled to various countries to learn more about different cultures and languages. He then attended the University of Southern Denmark between 1986 and 1990, where he enrolled in the programme International negotiation – economics, language and culture and finished it with a master's degree (cand. negot.).
Until 2012, Ole Kassow worked for several companies as product manager, director, CEO, and consultant. He also supported the founding of various commercial startup companies.
In 2004, he started his own business ″olekassow.com″ providing betterness consultancy to ″inspire and help companies [to] reach their potential″. In 2012, Ole Kassow and others founded ″The Bike Republic″ (Cykelrepublikken), an NGO supporting the fight for improvements to the city infrastructure for cyclists and pedestrians. [3] Also in 2012, he started the company ″Purpose Makers″ which believes ″that the future belongs to purpose-driven companies and organizations. They will have strong cultures, engaged and happy employees and enthusiastic customers, patients, citizens and users. They're here to change the world.″ [4] [5]
His most prominent endeavour was the founding of the Cycling Without Age organization in 2012. This movement enables senior citizens with limited mobility to enjoy outings with volunteer-piloted trishaws. By March 2020, this movement had spread to more than 50 countries with 2,200 local chapters operating 3,000 trishaws, serving 1.5 million people by 33,000 trained cycle pilots. [1] [6] [7]
In 2017, Ole Kassow was awarded the Ashoka Fellowship – only the second Danish person to receive this notable award. [2]
Ole Kassow lives and works in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Transport in Denmark is developed and modern. The motorway network covers 1,111 km while the railway network totals 2,667 km of operational track. The Great Belt Fixed Link connecting the islands of Zealand and Funen and the New Little Belt Bridge connecting Funen and Jutland greatly improved the traffic flow across the country on both motorways and rail. The two largest airports of Copenhagen and Billund provide a variety of domestic and international connections, while ferries provide services to the Faroe Islands, Greenland, Iceland, Germany, Sweden, and Norway, as well as domestic routes servicing most Danish islands.
The cycle rickshaw is a small-scale local means of transport. It is a type of hatchback tricycle designed to carry passengers on a for-hire basis. It is also known by a variety of other names such as bike taxi, velotaxi, pedicab, bikecab, cyclo, beca, becak, trisikad, sikad, tricycle taxi, trishaw, or hatchback bike.
The culture of Denmark has a rich scientific and artistic heritage. The astronomical discoveries of Tycho Brahe (1546–1601), Ludwig A. Colding's (1815–1888) neglected articulation of the principle of conservation of energy, and the foundational contributions to atomic physics of Niels Bohr (1885–1962); in this century Lene Vestergaard Hau in quantum physics involving the stopping of light, advances in nano-technology, and contributions to the understanding of Bose-Einstein Condensates, demonstrate the range and endurance of Danish scientific achievement. The fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen (1805–1875), the philosophical essays of Søren Kierkegaard (1813–1855), the short stories of Karen Blixen, penname Isak Dinesen, (1885–1962), the plays of Ludvig Holberg (1684–1754), modern authors such as Herman Bang and Nobel laureate Henrik Pontoppidan and the dense, aphoristic poetry of Piet Hein (1905–1996), have earned international recognition, as have the symphonies of Carl Nielsen (1865–1931). From the mid-1990s, Danish films have attracted international attention, especially those associated with Dogme 95 like those of Lars Von Trier. Denmark has had a strong tradition of movie making and Carl Theodor Dreyer has been recognised as one of the world's greatest film directors.
A cargo bike is a human powered vehicle designed and constructed specifically for transporting loads. Cargo bike designs include a cargo area consisting of an open or enclosed box, a flat platform, or a wire basket, usually mounted over one or both wheels, low behind the front wheel, or between parallel wheels at either the front or rear of the vehicle. The frame and drivetrain must be constructed to handle loads larger than those on an ordinary bicycle.
Mikael Colville-Andersen is a Canadian-Danish urban designer and urban mobility expert. He was the CEO of Copenhagenize Design Company, which he founded in 2009 in Copenhagen, and he works with cities and governments around the world in coaching them towards becoming more bicycle friendly. He is the host of the urbanism documentary television series The Life-Sized City, which premiered in 2017 on TVOntario and in 2018 on various other international channels including Finland's national broadcaster YLE and Italian broadcaster La Effe. Season 1 of The Life-Sized City was nominated for five Canadian Screen Awards in 2018.
Bicycle culture can refer to a mainstream culture that supports the use of bicycles or to a subculture. Although "bike culture" is often used to refer to various forms of associated fashion, it is erroneous to call fashion in and of itself a culture.
Cycling advocacy consists of activities that call for, promote or enable increased adoption and support for cycling and improved safety and convenience for cyclists, usually within urbanized areas or semi-urban regions. Issues of concern typically include policy, administrative and legal changes ; advocating and establishing better cycling infrastructure ; public education regarding the health, transportational and environmental benefits of cycling for both individuals and communities, cycling and motoring skills; and increasing public and political support for bicycling.
Cycling is a common mode of transport in the Netherlands, with 36% of Dutch people listing the bicycle as their most frequent way of getting around on a typical day, as opposed to the car (45%) and public transport (11%). Cycling has a modal share of 27% of all trips nationwide. In cities this is even higher, such as Amsterdam which has 38%, and Zwolle 46%. This high frequency of bicycle travel is enabled by excellent cycling infrastructure such as cycle paths, cycle tracks, protected intersections, ample bicycle parking and by making cycling routes shorter and more direct than car routes.
Cycle chic or bicycle chic refers to cycling in fashionable everyday clothes. The fashion concept developed in popular culture to include bicycles and bicycle accessories as well as clothing. The phrase Cycle Chic was coined in 2007 by Mikael Colville-Andersen, who started the Copenhagen Cycle Chic blog in the same year.
Cycling in Copenhagen is – as with most cycling in Denmark – an important mode of transportation and a dominating feature of the cityscape, often noticed by visitors. The city offers a variety of favourable cycling conditions — dense urban proximities, short distances and flat terrain — along with an extensive and well-designed system of cycle tracks. This has earned it a reputation as one of the most bicycle-friendly cities in the world. Every day 1.2 million kilometres are cycled in Copenhagen, with 62% of all citizens commuting to work, school, or university by bicycle; in fact, almost as many people commute by bicycle in greater Copenhagen as do those cycle to work in the entire United States. Cycling is generally perceived as a healthier, more environmentally friendly, cheaper, and often quicker way to get around town than by using an automobile.
The Cycling Embassy of Denmark (CED) is a Danish network organization dedicated to the promotion of cycling as a means of transportation and Denmark as a cycling nation by capitalizing on the deep rooted Danish cycling culture to offer solutions to urban planners across Europe and the world in the areas of urban planning, bicycle infrastructure development, and cycling promotion.
Copenhagen City Bikes or Bycykler København was the bicycle sharing system of Copenhagen, Denmark. Launched in 1995 with 1,000 cycles, the project was the world's first organized large-scale urban bike-sharing scheme, which, unlike its Dutch predecessor, featured what are now considered basic elements such as coin deposit, fixed stands and specially designed bikes with parts that cannot be used on other bikes. Riders paid a refundable deposit at one of 110 special bike stands and had unlimited use of a bike within the specified downtown area. The scheme was funded by commercial sponsors. In return, the bikes carried advertisements, which appeared on the bike frame and the solid-disk type wheels. When the programme was abolished in October 2012, some 1,500–1,700 bikes were still in service, out of a total of 2,500 put onto the streets.
The Cycle Messenger World Championships, or CMWCs, are an annual urban cycling competition whereby cycle messengers and cycling enthusiasts showcase their skills in an array of events, many of which simulate everyday tasks for a cycle messenger. Each year, the CMWCs are held in a different city around the world, with each host city designing its own unique course. The highlight of the CMWCs is the main race in which cyclists are given manifests and must pickup and deliver items to various locations around the host city as quickly and efficiently as possible. The total number of pickups and deliveries, or "drop offs" is unknown to the messengers before the race, but has been known to reach up to 100 stops and usually takes between 3–4 hours to complete. The cyclist who completes all of the assigned deliveries in the least amount of time wins the race. In addition to the main race there are also several side events which have become increasingly popular over the past few years. These events change yearly depending on the discretion of the host city but usually include backward circles, bike polo, bunnyhop, cargo race, longest skid, sprints, and trackstand.
Cycling in Denmark is both a common and popular recreational and utilitarian activity. Bicycling infrastructure is a dominant feature of both city and countryside infrastructure with segregated dedicated bicycle paths and lanes in many places and the network of 11 Danish National Cycle Routes extends more than 12,000 kilometres (7,500 mi) nationwide. Often bicycling and bicycle culture in Denmark is compared to the Netherlands as a bicycle-nation.
Cycling infrastructure is all infrastructure cyclists are allowed to use. Bikeways include bike paths, bike lanes, cycle tracks, rail trails and, where permitted, sidewalks. Roads used by motorists are also cycling infrastructure, except where cyclists are barred such as many freeways/motorways. It includes amenities such as bike racks for parking, shelters, service centers and specialized traffic signs and signals. The more cycling infrastructure, the more people get about by bicycle.
David Nicholas, is an Australian cyclist. He won silver and gold medals at the 2012 London Paralympics and a gold medal at the 2016 Rio Paralympics and a bronze medal at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics.
Cycling in Penang Island refers to the use of bicycles in the city of George Town and elsewhere on Penang Island, Malaysia, either for recreational, touring or transportation purposes. While bicycles have long been in use in Penang, with rickshaws becoming a unique application of the pedal-driven vehicle in the state, the usage of bicycles has noticeably declined since the late 20th century due to the proliferation of cars as the main transportation mode.
A bicycle highway, also known as a cycling superhighway, fast cycle route or bike freeway, is an informal name for a bicycle path that is meant for long-distance traffic. There is no official definition of a bicycle highway. The characteristics of a cycle motorway mentioned by authorities and traffic experts include an absence of single-level intersections with motorized traffic, a better road surface and the absence of traffic lights. Bicycle highways are mentioned in connection with traffic jam. Owing to higher average speeds than normal cycling infrastructure, they provide an alternative to the car in commuter traffic. Often a cycle motorway follows the route of a railway or other linear infrastructure.
Ole Bjarne Kassow is a Danish rower. He competed in the men's coxless four event at the 1960 Summer Olympics. In 1966, he received the badge of honor from the Københavns Roklub.
Cycling Without Age (CWA) is a nonprofit organization founded in Copenhagen, Denmark in 2012. By 2020, this initiative had expanded into 50 countries, serving over 1.5 million people worldwide.