Image from copehagenize.com

1 of 3 Danes bikes to work

NYC has major plans to invest and motivate people to bike more and leave their SUVs parked at home. Where did they turn for inspiration? Denmark. Danes bike whether it is a snowstorm or pouring rain. Balancing their umbrellas with one hand and holding course with the other they are making a silent and emission free statement so eloquently with pure nonexistence of their car. Danes have the incredible benefit of special bike lanes that are built up slightly from the street level. The roads actually have three different levels, thus defining the different zones:

• pedestrians-highest level
• bikers- middle level
• cars, buses- lowest level

This makes for safe biking in Denmark

One of the largest challenges in NYC is the relative danger. Maybe more annoying for NYC’s fast paced bikers is the inconvenience with all the taxi cabs. The yellow cabs are pulling over constantly to pick up a new fare or let out passagers at their destinations. Doors are swinging out like a moving obstacle course for the bikers, irritating the destination driven bikers and surely slowing them down. See this video for the whole story.

Read my earlier post about mega bike shares in China.