Danes on wheels

Denmark is known worldwide for its bicycles, in fact, Danes rides their bikes everywhere: to work, to school, to the grocery store, to take their kids to school, to the recycling station...
When I first moved to Denmark, I had no other choice to go around but to find a bicycle, but, it's not that simple when you are an exchange student. You don't speak the language so all those second-hand exchange webpage are pretty much off limits. If you manage to get the phone number of a 2nd hand bike seller, you might be unlucky and find out that that he/she is one of the few Danes that don't understand English. At a certain point you are desperate and willing to pay any price in order to not take the bus anymore (it's so expensive!).
My first bike costed me 600 danish crowns and it was definitively not worth it. But I fanlly I had a bike!
The next challenge was that of learning how to ride it. It wasn't my first time on a bike, but, it seemed to be: the seat was so tall (for my 1,60 mt. height) that anytime I had to stop I had to jump off, but, the main problem was to actually stop.
Here in Denmark, most bicycles have a funny break system: you don't have the two handles on the handlebar, but you have to turn the pedals backwards in order to slow down and, ultimately block the back wheel. That took quite some practice, but I can say it's not bad at all! To all the Danes this system is known as the most efficient: normal breaks won't survive more than one rainy/snowy winter and get rusty right away.
As the whole society, Danish bike traffic runs smoothly and precisely, because most (if not all) citizens carefully follow the rules: sign when you go right, sign when you stop, use lights, use helmets... Denmark is populated with a well disciplined army on two wheels.
Problems start arising when you add wheels. In fact, if Danes are wonderful cyclist, you can't say the same for their driving skills. I can't count the times I was standing at an intersection and felt sorry for some poor gearshift levers, tortured by reckless drivers (and, no, I'm not talking about women only).
I actually understand the challenges of driving a car in cities where bicycles are everywhere: Danish drivers are extremely respectful of bikes. Maybe because, if they hit a cyclist, they risk to lose their driving licence and they rather come to an informal agreement with him.
Of course, all I'm saying is a generalization of my personal experience and if I had to base it only on the past two weeks I would say that riding a bike in Denmark is hell!
The other week I was almost invested by a bus that, while I was driving straight through a crossroad, decided to overtake me and turn right. This week, instead, in the same day, I fell off my bike (because I was trying to avoid hitting the pavement, stopping and signing with my hands all at the same time) and risked to be invested by a postman on a moppet who probably had a bad day and decided to drive among bicycles waiting for the green light.
All in all, riding your bike in Denmark can be a deadly experience, that gets you a heart attack everytime you get out of the door or it can make you feel the most environment friendly and physically active person in the world.

What do you think about my experience on wheels? How is/was your experience of driving in Denmark? Are Danes super conscious or reckless drivers/cyclists?

Leave a comment on this post and have a nice day!