Danes bike everywhere – school, job, shopping, picking up kids. Bike lanes figure prominently in major towns, not just in the centre but also along the in-roads, and are used by thousands of pendlers every day. You find large groups (sometimes piles) of bikes accumulated on every corner, square, by train and metro stations, etc.
In my town, Aarhus, one specific person had a significant influence on the town ending up being very bicycle friendly. The journalist Bernhardt Jensen, who was the Mayor of Aarhus from 1958 to 1971, was an avid biker himself. He firmly opposed the plans to tear down large numbers of buildings in central Aarhus in order to make room for a 4 lane road – something people of the time thought would be a great improvement to the local traffic situation.
Last year a memorial sculpture by the Danish artist Jan Balling was revealed, right by the old ford at the center of town – an area now reserved for pedestrian traffic, with bike lane access from all sides.
Celebrating Bernhardt Jensen as a true visionary when it comes to urban spaces and how we invite people and life into them, the base bears the words “tiden, byen og manden” – “time, the town and the man”.
Does your town invite biking?
