As we biked around we saw many areas that had infrastructure that shocked me. The garbage cans that were on the side of the bike path that you could shoot into the can. The blue-painted lanes for bikes. The supercycle highways and the cargo bikes. And all the parking!! Copenhagen’s infrastructure changed from auto priority to bikes being on the same level. We see that this society was car dominant and now they have built interconnected paths for biking. For the city, many people will bike from the suburbs to town but also bike from the city center out. It goes both ways in how they travel. This is very different than at home. Biking is incorporated in all areas. Even if one road doesn’t have the infrastructure then the next road will which is super helpful. In Copenhagen, I felt comfortable biking everywhere. One thing I was confused by was turning left and having to go across the street to make that happen. That was very odd to me that we had to go to the cross intersection and then cross over. But the fact that I have seen a lot of people break this rule and cross in the intersection. I also thought it was interesting to have the rule to not turn on red. But I also saw a lot of people turn on red as well. The bike parking areas are massive and the idea that you can leave your bikes unlocked is shocking. I remember in Eugene when I first moved into my first apartment not even a week later my friend’s bike got broken into. The bike just had disappeared which she had brought all the way from Los Angles. Knowing that bikes are safe here and nothing will get stolen is honestly refreshing.
