Danish Bike Culture And My Fanboys Experience

Rush hour in Copenhagen

I like to ride a bike. For the Danes it is an integral part of their day and culture. The Danish government taxes cars at 180%! Yes, you read that correctly. 180%! Read it and weep Detroit.

CPH = Copenhagen

I took lots of pictures to show how it is such a bike friendly place. They have plenty of parking for bikes…and then some. 

Massive parking for bikes (none for cars)

Seriously, there are tons of them.

This is only a small bit of an indoor bike storage room. I’ve seen businessess (and apartment complexes for that matter) in the US with parking lots that were smaller. 

An indoor bike storage room

They make it easy to navigate the city by bike. The stairs have a rails to roll your bike up or down. The bike lanes are everywhere and are huge. I heard (so who knows whether it is true) that to eliminate some of the crowding on bikes during rush hour, they were considering closing parts of the city to car traffic to make more bike lanes!

Nice, wide bike lanes on either side of the road

Cars have to take the long way around, you can take the shortcut by bike.

A rail for your wheels

People are prepared and trick their bikes out to fit their needs.  This guy was toteing three little ones around. We also saw people using those to transport their shopping.  

Two kids and a baby an infant carrier up front!

Covered when it rains The bikes even get ads, like we do on our windshields. By the way, the cycling world championships were held in Copenhagen this week. Despite trying to talk my way onto the Leopard Trek bus, this is as close as I made it. My boy, the Swiss Fabulous Fabian Cancellara (aka Spartacus), came in third (Congratulations on the podium finish).  Has anyone seen Fanboys? This is my cycling version of it. His helmet? Please don’t take out a restraining order.