Bike (and train) mobility is so liberating!

We live in Lund, a city in the southern part of Sweden just 35 minutes by train to the Copenhagen 🇩🇰 airport. Lund is one of the oldest cities in the area, dating back to 990 AD. We have some beautiful historical buildings here, including the noteworthy domkyrka, which is celebrating its 900^th birthday this year! Lund is also a university town, with a lively student population contributing to the total of about 100,000 residents. Not knowing anything about this city before we landed in Sweden, we feel so fortunate to have found this gem of a town. Coming directly from Berkeley, California, a city we also loved, we have come to appreciate all that Lund has to offer. One of the biggest appreciations I have for this city and surrounding area is the ease with which you can bike to so many places. Whether it’s getting around the city or bringing the bike on-board a train, there is intentionality around bike mobility that creates such freedom of movement.

It starts with getting around the city. From trips to the grocery stores to commuting to work via the train, most places are very safe to cycle, generally with a protected bike path. These bike paths are completely separated from roads for cars – oftentimes the bike paths are shared with pedestrians, but there is very clear signage on who should be on what side of the path. Moreover, I feel very safe having each of my children (ages 7 and 12) get around on a bike, too. My 12-year old bikes everywhere around town on her own. My 7-year old still cycles with an adult, but he manages just fine on the paths.

(From rides in central Lund)

In addition to local city access, bike paths extend to nearby cities and nature reserves. In the past year, we’ve cycled to Lomma Beach (11 km) and to Skrylle Nature Reserve (13 km). Each of these destinations has bike-protected paths for most of the way. In the event there are cars sharing the road, they tend to pay attention to cyclists and give plenty of space. As someone who used to bike in cities in the USA, and having been hit by a car while living in Boston, the difference I experience with cars and bikes here is noteworthy.

(Going from Lund to Lomma Beach. Note the complete separation from the main road for cars.)

Beyond the city and immediate surroundings, bikes are oftentimes welcomed on trains, extending the distance one can travel. For example, we’ve taken our bikes to explore other parts of southern Sweden, including the island of Ven. We brought our bikes onboard a train from Lund to Landskrona, then took a ferry to Ven, and from there navigated on their bike-friendly roads to explore the beaches and cafes. It was a great way to spend the day and the ease of it all made me want to do it again in future. One of these days, I’ll take my bike to Copenhagen so I can explore more of the city by bike. To date, I just walk or take public transport to get around when I’m there, but I know that cycling in Copenhagen is one of the most efficient ways to get around. According to one source, more than 60% of Copenhagen residents commute to work or school by bike! When I first visited Copenhagen in 2018, one of my most impressionable memories came from seeing person after person on their bike, cycling on bike pathways to their destination. That trip in 2018 was one of my inspirations for wanting to live in this part of the world – to better understand what it meant to live in an area where sustainability is part of the intentional design in city planning. Now that we’re living in Lund, I can say that I experience this intentionality in the day to day, and it has a very positive effect on our quality of life. To learn more about where I live in Lund, this website gives more details on bike accessibility and a bit of flavor on that intentionality in design.

(Biking on Ven Island)

When I compare bike mobility in Lund relative to our time in California, it is a very different experience. Granted, when we first arrived in San Francisco back in 2005, we lived without a car for a number of years. We walked and took BART & MUNI (the local public transport) to get around. But once I got a job in Berkeley, the commute made it increasingly difficult to do without a car. Then when we had our first child, the car felt essential. Eventually, once we moved to Berkeley and had our second child, we needed two cars to get to work, schools, and other daily activities that required each parent having a vehicle. As people who fully recognized the carbon footprint of these choices, we also knew that public transportation was inefficient (never mind the cycling possibility) for where we lived, making it not a viable option. We did bike in Berkeley, and I even did it a few times to get my daughter to school and to explore nearby areas. But I didn’t do it daily and constantly felt like I had to look in all directions all the time to ensure I wasn’t about to be hit by a car (perhaps that was my paranoia having been hit by a car in Boston). So in making this move to Lund, it has been such a pleasure to participate in the bike culture here. We don’t even own a car! Of course, having a car does make mobility outside the city easier and the good news is that car share options are available, so we just rent by the hour when we need it.

I know that there are many efforts taking place in California and the US West Coast to enable better bike and public transportation options. In fact, a shout out to friends Blaine Merker and Dylan Saloner who are working on just this in the Bay Area. All that said, I have found this bike freedom to be one of my most appreciated aspects of making the move to Sweden.

Thanks for reading, and let me know what questions/ideas this post sparks. Your engagement will give me ideas for future writings, so thanks in advance for sharing thoughts!