photo by Let Ideas Compete (Flickr CC)
I stopped driving when I moved to Europe over ten years ago. I’ve never really missed it as it hurts my back. I also don’t miss traffic jams, paying for gas/petrol, insurance and general vehicle upkeep.
Soon after relocating I got into cycling. No, not skin-tight lycra clothing and titanium water bottles, just getting from A to B on a standard velocipede. I’ve got no time for trendy fixed gears or expensive, masturbatory mountain bikes. Some bastard will just steal them anyway.
These last ten years my no-car-guy persona has become set in his ways. I’m thrifty to the point of self-annoyance, but probably fitter as well as richer because of it.
I’m the kind of guy who, at a party, will hang out in the kitchen having deep, philosophical conversations instead of dancing and flirting in the living room to too-loud pulsating rock and roll music. The kind of guy who people will remember and say, ‘that guy was really interesting’ or perhaps even, ‘that guy was a nerdy, fidgety creep’.
But never mind all that. As far as the cycling rather than driving bit goes, it turns out I’m not so unique among residents of European cities.
From The Local (German edition):
In Berlin the share of car traffic on the road has decreased by six percent. In addition, use of bicycles has doubled to 13 percent. The top spot in the fight against harmful exhaust emissions can be pegged on the consistent implementation of the environmental zone in Berlin.
–Werner Reh, a transportation expert for BUND
Berlin recently came top among European cities in a ranking of clean air practices, though as far as ‘cycle penetration’ is concerned, the German capital lags behind the Scandinavian biking Meccas of Stockholm (50%) and Copenhagen (40%).
If you’ve experienced cycle traffic in either of these cities you’ll know what these numbers mean, as this quote from an article in the Guardian illustrates:
I went on a cycling trip around Copenhagen with a friend visiting from London recently, and she was terrified by the mass of cyclists and the aggressive way they behaved. She found them so overwhelming that she burst into tears. She was too scared to get back on her bike. We had to put it in a taxi and drive back home.
–Aneh Hajdu, Wonderful Copenhagen (Denmark’s official tourism organization)
Well that’s a bit wimpy, especially considering the number of seniors (and I’m talking 80-year olds) who regularly cycle in Scandinavia. You get used to the conditions quickly enough. But it is true that cycling in the Danish capital is serious business. While biking accidents have fallen in recent years, cyclist groups in Copenhagen are advocating for wider bike lanes, which are already at least twice the size of cycle lanes in the UK. Still, it’s not quite Beijing in the 1980s.
To manage on a bike in Copenhagen just get stuck in. And if on foot, remember to stay the hell out of bike lanes and you’ll be fine. If a nerdy American transplant like me can manage, anyone can.
To end on an Orwellian note: two wheels good, four wheels bad.
