Viking biking in New England?

I'm sitting at home, writing this and looking through the window at snowflakes dancing in the air. It's the snowstorm time. My workplace is closed. Roads are empty. Some snowplows pass by once a while. If you take a walk to your local supermarket you will find empty shelves and a few bored employees inside. This happens every single year in New England and every year we react the same way - with near panic, buying everything from store shelves like the Armageddon was coming.

Surprisingly though, it's also the best time in winter to ride a bike in the city. Overwhelming majority of American drivers don't like driving in snow and in fact, don't know how. Learning how to drive is not a requirement of driver licensing system here. Odd.

This means that when streets are completely free of traffic, they are also safe and as long as you are prepared to ride during snowfall, there is no reason you shouldn't.

📷 copenhagenvikingbiking: It was -10 C plus windchill that morning. Yep. #VikingBiking #Copenhagen https://t.co/x5grnSbNq9

— Colville-Andersen (@copenhagenize) January 4, 2018

Winter cycling is often called "Viking biking" - a catchy term first used by Mikael Colville-Andersen, I believe. Copenhagen has an impressive number of winter cyclists that puts to shame any other city in the world. People ride their bikes there not because they want to, but because it's simply the fastest type of transportation between two points in the downtown. Of course, Copenhagen made this happen by not only designing a vast network of protected bike lanes, but also properly maintaining them in winter. As such, while we in Boston use bikes with studded tries to get through those barely cleared bike paths, citizens of Copenhagen can ride on blacktop lanes using pretty much any bike they like.

Would I like to see this type of infrastructure here in Boston? Of course! But do I think that once we build it, we will see the same percentage of people on bicycles in winter months as there's in Copenhagen? I don't think so. That's because there are two more factors that need to be considered.

First - the weather. Comparing with Boston, Copenhagen enjoys relatively mild winters. Yes, temperature can drop to 15F (-10C) but that's quite rare. And while it rains and snows frequently in Denmark, it doesn't usually dump 2-3ft of snow overnight onto the city. In Boston however, the situation is quite different. I've been living here for the last 15 years and I remember maybe only 2 winters in that time when temperature didn't drop to -4F (-20C). It seems to be guaranteed in January just as winter blizzards are in our area. This doesn't mean you can't ride your bike in these conditions. But no matter what you say, there will be a significant number of people who will refuse to ride bikes when it gets this cold.

Second - the distance. People in Copenhagen use their bikes predominantly for short-distance trips, 2-10km long (1-6mi), and that's not a typical distance of an average American bike commuter. My ride to work is 10mi (16km) long and that's not long by American standards. Combine that with 0F weather and you may not find many enthusiasts who would want to do it, even if infrastructure is perfectly maintained.

I'm not sure Viking biking will ever gain popularity in New England but it would certainly become more common, at least on short distances, if we invest in building and maintaining a proper network of bike lanes. Nevertheless, there is a lot to like about cycling in winter. You should give it a try!