Getting around in Århus
Pretty much everyone in Denmark (Europe?) rides a bike. Its strange though. I’ve grown up with the mind that the simple act of riding a bike was acting against the establishment – as though the powers that be prefer us in unsafe planet-killing motor-vehicles. But, in a city that has a great bike-loan program and boasts a wide bike lanes, elevated away from hazardous cars and trucks across a virtually flat landscape, I find myself transplanted in a land where my big-fuck-you-by-way-of-pedal-power is pretty well punt blocked. Did I mention that gas costs about twice what we pay in North America?
So being in such a bike-friendly place, I must feel pretty satisfied, right? Mission accomplished, Critical Mass! We won! Right? Not quite. My first impression actually is that cyclists here don’t know how good they have it and kind of take it for granted. Also, given the greater number of cyclists, can you imagine that there are actually traffic problems on bike lanes? All in all, I don’t sense the same sort of camaraderie that North American bike-culture offers. I miss places like Re-Cycles where I can fix my bike by myself using a generous pool of used parts and tools I can’t afford on my own. Hell, with the police auction here being the only real place to get a used bike here, I even miss the Bike Dump and the Salvation Army Thrift Store. It isn’t abnormal for people here to spend $100 on a used bike you’d get in Canada for between $10-40.
How excited I was, then, to finally decide that the dust covered and flat-tired pink and black 12-speed in my apartment basement would become my Danish road racer. After it hadn’t moved in over a month, could a free, fast bike be too good to be true? Yup. Finally, the owner of the bike, my downstairs neighbor reclaimed it. Very doubtful that it will ever get used though! What gives?
RIP.
Unlike in Canada where you’ll find people advocating death penalty for bike thieves, Bike theft is not only rampant here but it is sort of accepted as normal to the point that in some cases, it perpetuates itself. I only got here in August and already I’ve had friends who have been victims of bike theft. Suck it up and buy a new one? No. Most people will just steal someone else in the hopes that the universe will balanced itself. After a while, people will probably find themselves stealing their old bike without even realizing it.
You’ll also find a lot of abandoned bikes with bent wheels and broken spokes on the sidewalks. These are generally picked up by the cops and sold at auction. Still though, who would just ditch their bike – even a stolen one? OK. People in Ottawa ditch bikes too but we’re talking about mass ditching in Denmark. I could probably find 100 ditched bikes a day if I wanted to.
The city centre caters to nearly 100% pedestrian traffic too which is pretty awesome but cobblestones make not a good surface for skateboarding or biking with skinny tires for that matter.
Being sans-bike isn’t the worst thing though. It forces me to take the bus, which is an experience in itself whereby it lets me listen to sick jams and helps get me acquainted with the kids of Gellerup, “a concrete suburb that stands as an example of the 1960s urban development that scars several Danish cities.” Very similar to the banlieues in Paris.
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karma or not, bike thieves are still the worst.
Comment by michelle — October 17, 2007 #
Aside from having people in a hurry ring their bell at me – biking in Denmark was a pleasant experience. No taxi ever cut me off, I didn’t have to squeeze between a smelly garbage truck and a parked car. Mark my words, you will miss those bike lanes when you get back to Canada. And you haven’t seen bike traffic yet if you’ve only tried biking in Arhus – Amersterdam and Copenhagen are where it’s at in that department. Oh and I rode a stolen bike while I was in DK – you got to do like the locals.
Comment by Jasmin — October 17, 2007 #