First Impressions of Biking in Copenhagen

The ease with which I adjusted to biking in Copenhagen surprised me. Our initial assignment of following someone around felt intimidating in a place where I had never seen so many people biking at once. The person I chose to follow, who was wearing a long floral green dress that seems incredibly popular here, took me on a straight line up Øster Voldgade. My first impression of this route was the ease of travel, despite it being a major car route as well. The lights seem times so that I rarely had to stop as I biked by impressive museums, old churches, and brightly colored housing. The ease with which I traveled a significant amount of distance emphasized how different the bicycle infrastructure here is from the US. My other initial observations included the diversity in ages and professions I saw biking. In my first couple of days, I’ve seen young children, students, the elderly, and everything in between biking all over the city. I’ve also seen people biking in casual summer clothing, professional work outfits, formal wear, and even clothes that look like they belong in a dance club. I think this emphasizes how incorporated biking is into the culture here, that people of all facets of life bike regularly.

Angie at Nyllhaven

I am amazed by the Danish use of the Third Place. Almost everywhere we go people are socializing, laughing, or simply existing, making it seem like the entire country is the Third Place, a concept elusive in American Society. People's access to safe, welcoming, and vibrant spaces outside of their homes and work/school creates a vibrant and interconnected society. Bike Mike mentioned trust as a significant part of Danish culture and I think this access to a Third Place is a huge part of creating that societal trust. 

Full Immersion into Danish Culture

This leads me to another impression I had one of our free days. Several others in the group and I chose to bike to La Banchina to go swimming. The sheer amount of people there surprised me, I believe Bike Mike said it best, “all Danes yearn for the sea!”. The amount of leisure and public activities people take place in has been very eye-opening to the differences between Danish and American culture. In general, I think Americans work more and have less free time and less space to engage in leisurely activities. This is evident in the partying, long lunches, and other fun aspects of Denmark I have seen so far. I believe that this is beneficial to their physical and mental health, in addition to the regular cardio they get from biking. 

Recent Danish Graduates

My biggest takeaway these first couple of days has been how biking is so incorporated into daily life and culture. People can bike long or short distances to basically anywhere in the city, and do any activity when they arrive. I see children biking with their friends alone, teenagers biking and obeying traffic laws, and older couples taking bike rides through quieter streets. It interconnects the city in a way car traffic does not. The themes of my impressions all seem to fall under the interconnectedness, both physically and metaphorically, in Danish society. Bicycles play a huge role in the physical interconnectedness of Copenhagen, but also the metaphorical.