A whole different world

I came across a really cool New York Times story that made me so jealous of the Danish!  They have built a bike super highway connecting the communities that are up to 14 miles from the capital of Copenhagen.  These are wide, smooth, scenic, maintained, protected and well lit bike paths encouraging more people to ride to the capital instead of drive.  Interestingly was that many ride their bikes because they see driving as a nuisance that takes more time than riding! 

"Danish statistics show that every 6 miles biked instead of driven saves 3 1/2 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions and 9 cents in health care costs. But many cite happiness among the chief benefits of bicycle commuting."  9 cents in health care savings may not seem like much, but what if every person in your company saved those 9 cents (my bike commute would be closer 12 cents round trip) for a month?    For our library with a staff of 33 employees, assuming we all worked 22 days in July and rode each day, that would be a health care savings of $65.34 for this month alone.  When you look at a library system that might have 300 staff, how about $7,128 in a year! 

OK, so those numbers actually mean nothing because: 1. those are based on health care cost in Denmark, 2. not all staff would ride, and not everyday, 3. some staff work more or less than 22 days in a month, 4. some staff live a lot farther or closer than 3 miles from work, and 5. my dear friend and coworker (who shall remain nameless) does not know how to ride a bike.  Really its her lack of bike riding that throws the whole thing out the window! ;)

"Superhighway users can also look forward to some variation on the “karma campaign,” now under way in Copenhagen, in which city employees take to the streets with boxes of chocolate to reward cyclists who adhere to the five rules of cycling: be nice, signal, stay to the right, overtake carefully and, rather than let bicycle bells irritate you, do your best to appreciate them. "

Chocolate in the street for riding your bike!  Yes please!  To show how different this attitude is from Oklahoma or the USA, the only feedback I get for riding my bike to work is jerks in large trucks honking or yelling obscenities at me.  They take offense (I assume) that I am riding on the road, where I am legally entitled to ride, yet don't stop and consider that their are no bike lanes or sidewalks available to me.  I would love to see a shift in our culture that valued and encouraged walking and riding bikes instead of driving.