The Danes have done a lot right when it comes to bikes.
This video (which I found on the excellent, but hard to spell, Cycleliciousness blog) is the first of a five part podcast from A Billion bikes. (Parts four to five are also on the Cycleliciousness blog.) There’s about half an hour of video in total, so I’ve not watched it all yet.
“How did we get here in Copenhagen – maybe because we have 100 years of cycling tradition in Copenhagen”.
“How did we get here in Darlington – maybe because we have 100 years of cycling tradition in Darlington – but we’ve ignored it for the last 70”.
It’s easy to look at places like Copenhagen and Holland and just put their current cycling levels down to the fact they’ve always done it. But, from other books/videos I’ve seen on Copenhagen, they also ignored their cycling culture during the sixties and seventies and had to make a conscious effort to move back to bikes.
My partner stayed with relatives in Copenhagen in the 60’s, and confirms it was car hell then.