A very snowy hill

We’ve had a fair few snowstorms in Denmark in the past month, especially where I live, and the staggering amount of people who still chose to bike to work is insane.

Bikes are a very standard mode of transportation here, and many only have a bike (me included), instead opting for busses and trains for longer travels (A lot of people who own cars even choose to take the bus to work because it’s cheaper and they don’t have to find a parking spot). BUT taking the bike made no sense in this weather because you had to walk most of the way anyway. I should know because I was one of the fools who stubbornly chose my bike every day despite the fact that it added FIVE HOURS to my travel time compared to if I had just taken the bus. We are all creatures of habit I suppose.

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How to use a bike

When I moved to England I noticed a lot of differences from Denmark. When I moved back to Denmark I noticed even more. One being that "cyclist" means different things.

In Denmark a cyclist just means a person on a bike (and most Danes are cyclists), but in England it's mostly used about people who are really really REALLY into bikes.

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N00bs off the road

It’s probably only Icelanders who will get this without an explanation.

In Denmark we have a large bicycle culture and is even in the top three over the most bicycle friendly countries in the world (Either number three or two depending on the list. Holland is always number one). I only know one person who doesn’t own a bike, and people will assume a person was neglected as a child if they can’t ride one (I don’t know a single person who can’t).

Therefore the safety of cyclists is a high priority when making roads, and you will find bicycle paths everywhere that has a lot of traffic. The bicycle paths are often on the same level as the sidewalk, and in some places there is nothing to tell you where the sidewalk ends and the bicycle path start. That is not a problem for Danes because we grew up with it and knows where the invisible line goes.

But Icelanders are not so lucky. Bicycles are fairly rare on the island, and bicycle paths almost non existent. So when they come to Denmark they think the bicycle paths are also for walking.
In Denmark however it’s considered extremely rude to walk on the bicycles path, and if you don’t move when we ring our bell, then you’re just looking for a fight!

Therefore a lot of Icelanders have stories of how they almost got ran over or yelled at by angry Danes on bikes. So it has become a bit of a joke that Danes on bikes target Icelanders when we see them.

Denmark is teaching Norway to ride a bike here because even though Norway is also a very bicycle friendly country, they don’t have the same large bike culture because of all the mountains. But I also just thought it would be cute for Denmark to try and teach Norway something for once.

A little video about the use of bikes in Denmark http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_8dGodhGtI&playnext_from=TL&videos=RKsPejKpqTM

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