When Sille Kongstad told people about creating a bicycle hearse all her friends said she was crazy, but she went for it anyway. Not only did she open what most likely is a world first funeral service, but she claims people from Copenhagen actually appreciate the idea.
Denmark’s capital city is known as one of the most bicycle-friendly cities in the world with 1.1 million km bicycled every day. 36% of all citizens commute to work, school or university by bicycle and municipal authorities hope that this number should have gone up to 40% in 2012 and to 50% next year.
The city’s bicycle paths are extensive and well used, as most of them are separated from the main traffic lanes and sometimes have their own signal systems, giving the cyclists a lead of a couple of seconds to accelerate. With that much of a transportation system it’s no wonder that some people consider that even the last trip should also be done also on a bike. At least that is what undertaker Sille Kongstad believes.
“The bike started as an idea, a drawing on a piece of paper. I had googled around and looked at how crazy and different hearses are. I also found some beautiful photos of old carriages used as hearses before cars would take in. It was quite a long and exciting process, but it was totally worth it”, Kongstad explains on her company’s website.
The last trip might be environmental friendly, but it doesn't come cheap
The service was officially unveiled this summer, but local reports are that people are already calling for it. According to the prices listed on the website, driving a hearse bike will cost between 1495 and 2495 Danish krones ($247 and $412) but it could get even more expensive depending on the various options the customer orders.
The debut of the morbid, environmental-friendly service was made carrying 87-year old jazz man and environmentalist Hans Albertsen for his ultimate bike ride.”I think it’s very much in his spirit. He loved to ride his bike. Sometimes he wore a sort of mask because of the car pollution in the city. But we think he would have liked the idea”, the deceased’s daughter Agnete Albertsen said.
We’ve seen quite a lot of strange vehicles and even some really weird hearses, but we think this one beats them all.
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