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Cycling 365 days a year: in Oulu, a Finnish city in the north-east of the Gulf of Bothnia, neither freezing temperatures nor the first snowfalls stop cyclists in this municipality which defines itself as “the capital cycling in winter.
“I cycle all year round. I don’t even have a car”says Ari Karjalainen, rejoining his bike after shopping.
In the city center, bike racks cluttered with two-wheelers are blanketed in snow as residents zip through town bundled up on their bikes and leaving trails of vapor in their wake as they breathe in the cold air.
“You just need to be well covered”22-year-old Mimmi Kähkönen jokes when asked how she manages to ride a bike in freezing weather.
For many residents of this city where cycling in summer and winter is common, even the term “cycling in winter” sounds strange.
While many are equipped with wider winter tires with better grip and sometimes fitted with steel studs, some are content with the same pair of tires all year round.
“We are used to winter so we don’t see it as a challenge”told AFP Harri Vaarala, a road engineer from the city of Oulu.
“Bike Highways”
While this coastal city has an average of five months of freezing temperatures and snow in the year, one-fifth of all trips made in Oulu are made by bicycle.
In winter, that figure drops to 12%, according to city officials.
Thus, at the Metsokangas school, 1,000 of the 1,200 pupils cycle to school throughout the winter, even if the temperatures drop below -20°C.
In recent years, the city has opened several “bicycle highways”, six-meter-wide roads in red asphalt, which add to the nearly 1,000 kilometers of cycle paths already in existence.
According to Mr Vaarala, the city has made “a clear value decision” to support cycling, sometimes giving priority to cyclists over motorists.
“In some cases, we have moved the highways to incorporate a good quality cycle path”says the engineer, who explains that the main cycle paths are plowed with a higher priority than the roads used by cars.
When the city put out a tender for winter maintenance, one of the conditions was that snowplow operators and their supervisors cycle the route they maintain.
“It allows them to directly understand how different weather conditions affect the bike course”says Mr. Vaarala.
The city has also recruited “bicycle agents”, who report weekly on the state of the cycle paths, which has a direct effect on the bonuses allocated to the subcontractor.
In order to prevent snow from covering traffic signs, the city of Oulu is also experimenting with new technological solutions to enable safer cycling routes.
In some places, the traffic signs along the cycle paths are illuminated above the snow using spotlights.