- News
- Reviews
- Bikes
- Accessories
- Accessories - misc
- Computer mounts
- Bags
- Bar ends
- Bike bags & cases
- Bottle cages
- Bottles
- Cameras
- Car racks
- Child seats
- Computers
- Glasses
- GPS units
- Helmets
- Lights - front
- Lights - rear
- Lights - sets
- Locks
- Mirrors
- Mudguards
- Racks
- Pumps & CO2 inflators
- Puncture kits
- Reflectives
- Smart watches
- Stands and racks
- Trailers
- Clothing
- Components
- Bar tape & grips
- Bottom brackets
- Brake & gear cables
- Brake & STI levers
- Brake pads & spares
- Brakes
- Cassettes & freewheels
- Chains
- Chainsets & chainrings
- Derailleurs - front
- Derailleurs - rear
- Forks
- Gear levers & shifters
- Groupsets
- Handlebars & extensions
- Headsets
- Hubs
- Inner tubes
- Pedals
- Quick releases & skewers
- Saddles
- Seatposts
- Stems
- Wheels
- Tyres
- Health, fitness and nutrition
- Tools and workshop
- Miscellaneous
- Tubeless valves
- Buyers Guides
- Features
- Forum
- Recommends
- Podcast
news
Lego Shopping Street.PNGLego lands in cycle lanes as "ideological statements" row
Lego, the Danish maker of plastic bricks and construction kits, has come in for criticism after the Amsterdam based Urban Cycling Institute claimed that when it asked whether “they could think about adding proper cycling infrastructure [to the Lego City range], they responded: ‘we do not partake in ideological statements’.”
It's fair to say that the notion Lego might regard cycle lanes as ideological has raised eyebrows on social media – where some have pointed out that the suggestion that cycle lanes are an ideological statement is itself ideological.
In response, the Danish brick maker has told road.cc that its Lego City range enables people to add features “such as bike lanes if you choose to do so” – although based on product shots, it looks unlikely that the cycle lane, so narrow that the bicycle logo is turned sideways, would meet minimum design standards for width if scaled up to real-world size.
In a Facebook post published on Thursday, the Urban Cycling Institute added: “To help them, we designed/printed four alternatives. Currently on display in Technische Sammlungen Dresden. People-centric streets: child's play!”
We contacted Lego to ask whether the quote attributed to it by the Urban Cycling Institute indeed reflected company policy.
In a statement, the company told road.cc: “We welcome ideas and feedback from our fans, and we are committed to developing our Lego City sets in a way that ensures they are representative of the world in which children are living.
“In January 2021, we introduced a new modular road plate system in Lego City which allowed us to include bike lanes and other building elements as part of the play experience.
“The new road plate system is highly modular and versatile so you can easily add more elements to your play, such as bike lanes if you choose to do so.”
Indeed, the Shopping Street set pictured above, launched as part of the Lego City range in January this year, does feature a cycle lane – albeit one too narrow to accommodate a cargo bike, and also blocked in that image by a city council truck as workers repair an overhead street lamp, which we suppose is a nice real world touch.
A year earlier, at the start of 2020, Dutch regional councillor and brick enthusiast Marcel Steeman called on the company to make cycle paths available in its offer, saying: “I was playing with Lego with my kids and there were Lego cyclists, but I wondered where they had to cycle.
“If you are Dutch you are used to having cycling lanes.”
Underwhelmed by the cycle lane that eventually made it into the range, he devised his own version compatible with the company’s Lego City road plates and entered it into the Lego Ideas competition earlier this year.
> Cycle lane set coming to Lego?
In his pitch, which was backed by more than 10,000 supporters and is currently being reviewed by key Lego staff ahead of a decision being made about whether or not it should go into production, Steeman said:
Let's make Lego City a bicycle friendly city!
With new sets 60304 (Road Plates) and 60306 (Shopping Streets) Lego introduced a new way of looking at mobility in Lego City. Buildable and adjustable roads, bikes and even a cargo bike were introduced. So it's time to add to the next step in mobility: bike lanes that are wide enough to be safe to ride on and wide enough for a cargo bike. Built on the same template as the new Road Plates, so they can be easily combined to make Lego City a bike friendly city.
I've added some simple bike racks and a few different bikes, based on the standard lego bicycle. A bike with a child-seat, a bike with a crate on the front and a bike with bike-packing-bags. And a broken bike, that is being repaired by its rider, with a pump and some tools. The bike-locks are made of handcuffs and there are a few helmets for added safety. And the reduced speed limit (30 in stead of 50) and bikelane-road sign should help with that too.
But the real reason for this set are the bicycle-road plates. The Danish Blue color Lego chose for their bikelanes, with decals already in use for the Shopping Street-set. Wide enough for two-way traffic, to safely make room for all the bikes your Lego can build.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
Latest Comments
- chrisonabike 3 sec ago
The exact situation shown in this photo is pretty common near me....
- levestane 6 min 46 sec ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyhz4q-5NKA gives some options.
- brooksby 1 hour 1 min ago
Nope - had an urgent appointment with his tax advisor
- brooksby 1 hour 5 min ago
I'm not sure which one of them looks more like a crook…
- OnYerBike 1 hour 38 min ago
It might not be Miche-specific, but across all the thru-axle, disc brake wheelsets in my household (including Hope, DT Swiss and Bitex hubs), none...
- S.E. 3 hours 49 min ago
That made me think of that "Hot Fuzz" comedy movie... so many truths in it.
- Rendel Harris 5 hours 42 min ago
Good to see a V-brake option available for all those people who ride Cosmic Elites with V-brakes...seriously, you must know really that the answer...
- mattw 6 hours 20 min ago
Get thyself over to Buildhub - a community owned forum where I am on the moderation team ("Ferdinand") which is about self-build and renovation....
- Destroyer666 16 hours 23 min ago
Nonono, not those, but those that have constructed Italian cars and motorcycles that have been driven to hundreds of race and championship...
- RoubaixCube 16 hours 32 min ago
This may well be the case although Im unaware of the brands popularity on their home turf. I used to see them being advertised more in the UK...
Add new comment
23 comments
"We do not partake in ideological statements"
Excuse me? This is coming from the company that pulled a model rescue helicopter just before it hit the shelves, because anti-arms trade campaigners pointed out that the helicopter was only used by military, not civilian, rescue services?
And isn't this product just a little bit more ideological than a bike lane?:
https://www.lego.com/en-gb/product/everyone-is-awesome-40516?ef_id=CjwKC...
Is that Lego official photo at the top or road.cc's? Cycle lane blocked by Highways England vehicle is very realistic.
The very first picture is Logo's as shown on the link further down. The others pictured are "Fan" made to show cycle lanes properly done but nothing official. I'm sure someone with certain ideological views might take offence of the latter ones though if they decide to comment on here.
I notice that in the Urban Cycling Institue one, someone has already demolished the planter that was in the middle of their modal filter...
Only to be expected from a company that's churned out plastic for years. Never understood the fascination with it myself.
It appeals more to people with lots of creativity, and marketed mainly at children, who like to build.
It is not exactly single use, the stuff I had a child has been passed on to mates children and I'm sure that further generations will benifit from it.
This. The quality of Lego is actually quite high. My grandparents still have the Lego from when my parents were kids...One of us is probably going to inherit that eventually...
I think their high quality standards are also the problem with them only just getting a prototype together that uses recycled plastic to make LEGO bricks. I'd love to see people recycling plastic into LEGO-type bricks and then using them in a creative fashion rather than just throwing them away.
We could build houses out of them, like James May once did, though more people would die in house fires as a result...
My lawyers have just drawn my attention to my contract and so I'll have to include at least one LEGO squirrel
Never mind cycle lanes, it's the lack of a decent lego bike that bothers me. How can my lego man win his lego TDF on a single speed safety bicycle?!
You need to be building your own racing bike:
(Though that one doesn't have gears either)
I'm quite enjoying watching the Australian Lego Masters competition at the moment - it's astonishing how good some of their models are.
Edit: Found a pretty cool track bike:
Here's the best one I've found so far:
https://ideas.lego.com/challenges/5c659186-fb0b-46ab-8f9f-e619ccd8bd28/application/b856e4cf-edcd-4102-8fa7-6a5ce2ac7fa2
Those socks look illegal.
I reckon the UCI would have all kinds of complaints about the geometry and measurements.
Just came across this Canyon:
Seems the whole race is on what appear to be flat bar folders:
https://ideas.lego.com/projects/01522aaa-400b-43fb-abf8-5070420e5577
Although it looks suspiciously like there might be a battery hidden between those chainstays, which might help.
The War on Cars covered this back in June, if people would like more context:
https://thewaroncars.org/2021/06/07/where-are-the-bike-lanes-in-lego-city/
You could also find it by looking up The War On Cars (then Where Are The Bike Lanes in Lego City?) on whichever podcast client you use. Excellent podcast, US-based but covering issues relevant to anyone with an interest in reversing the negative effects of pandering to motor transport in cities. And yes, it's an ironic title.
I like this excerpt:
Doug: People who think about cycling like Marcel and Marco zeroed in on the fact that the bike lane appeared to be just two studs wide. The cargo bike? Five studs wide.
Marcel Steeman: When you look at the box art on that set, the cargo bike doesn’t even fit on the little bike lane. It’s so narrow it doesn’t even fit. And on the box itself, there is a truck parked on the bike lane.
Seems Lego got it right!
Hahah. By not taking care, they managed to refect reality far better than if they'd have taken the time to think about it.
Is it though? I think the term itself is quite ironic. Whenever I hear people complain about the 'war on cars' it reminds me that a war on cars (or lazy/selfish/incompetent drivers) wouldn't be a bad thing and actually, the thing that they are complaining about, doesn't go nearly far enough.
Well it's both. I agree with you. The people who invoke the phrase are generally car owners themselves who genuinely believe they are always at the bottom of the pile, despite street designs and the air we breath being ruined for their benefit for decades. Any concession to including others, redressing the balance or challenging their dominance is an attack on them; they claim some sort of victimhood that they really aren't experiencing. So for the podcast to discuss reversing the effects of prioritising cars under their poor me title is like an ironic reclaiming of the phrase. Or something.
Surely not having proper cycle lanes is rather more of an ideological statement than having them.
ADMIN; please, please, please sort out the intrusive advertising that blocks the comments.