Denmark has had a lot going on lately. There have been US threats to take control of Greenland, a territory within the kingdom of Denmark, and weeks of incendiary rhetoric from Donald Trump.
In beautiful contrast to the brash threats and bravado raining down on them, there’s a video doing the rounds titled Parking at Danish Foreign Ministry.
Posted by a Danish urban designer and cycling campaigner, Mikael Colville-Andersen, the video shows the staff parking area outside both the Danish ministry of foreign affairs and Denmark’s national parliament, the Folketing, in Copenhagen.
Set to gentle, twinkling music, the video shows the hundreds, if not thousands, of bicycles of government staff. A majority of members of the Danish parliament, 63 per cent, commute to work by bike, according to State of Green, a not-for-profit, public-private partnership between the Danish government and business associations there.
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High Nellies, cargo bikes, bikes with wicker baskets in front, bikes with child seats, bikes with pink saddles, funky retro racers, orange bikes, vintage bikes – every demographic is represented.
And there’s not a bike shed in sight.
Danes celebrate their cycling culture – they even have a cycling embassy. The bike is as much part of the national identity, perhaps, as car culture is in the US. Think about forms of transport synonymous with government in the United States, and the bombproof Cadillac limousine known as “The Beast” might spring to mind.
Weighing about 9,000kg and 6ft in height, according to NBC, this is a car on steroids. The sides are reported to be 8in thick, the windows 5in, and each door is believed to be 1ft thick, weighing as much as those on a Boeing 757.
And yes, it’s the same model that left the US Secret Service staff red-faced when it got wedged on a ramp exiting the underground car park of the US embassy in Ballsbridge during president Barack Obama’s 2011 visit.
At Davos, Switzerland, recently, the US Secret Service began transporting Donald Trump in newly commissioned models of this Cadillac SUV, the agency confirmed in a social media post.
If The Beast sounds all a little “over-specced”, Mikael Colville-Andersen’s social media content, showcasing Denmark’s cycling politicians, provides relief.
His Cycle Chic Manifesto, dating from 2008, is all about normalising it as a form of daily transport for everyone.
Cycling accounts for more than one in five of all trips under 10km in Denmark, and 15 per cent of all trips, according to the cycling embassy of Denmark.
For every kilometre travelled by bicycle, society gains 80 cent in socio-economic benefit. Adults who bike to work or use a bike for everyday purposes have 30 per cent lower morbidity than comparable people, according to the embassy. Cycling in the capital region leads to annual savings of €1 billion and a million fewer sick days.
Cycling isn’t hard or particularly intrepid. You don’t have to wear Lycra to get to the office on a bike. In Copenhagen, cycling in your work attire is the done thing. There’s no need for dedicated cycling clothing, or the necessity for showers. Cycling short distances across town, to your national parliament for example, is entirely doable. It isn’t dangerous, or unprofessional.
In Ireland, meanwhile, cycling accounts for just 2 per cent of all trips nationally, according to the National Transport Authority survey for 2024.
Even though more than seven in 10 of us live within a 15-minute walk of a shop, and 64 per cent of us live within this range of a pub or restaurant, cars remain the dominant mode of travel here, accounting for more than 70 per cent of daily trips.
Turn the Dáil car park into a “green space in the centre of the city”, said former Green Party leader Eamon Ryan in 2022. Politicians could use nearby car parks just minutes walk away instead.
Michael Ring, a former Fine Gael TD for Mayo and cabinet member, didn’t agree.
“We’re sick of the Greens now and we’re sick of their ideas. We have to park somewhere. They’re just going too far,” he said.
Labour leader Ivana Bacik has described “an embarrassment of cars parked everywhere around the Leinster House campus”.
As the US government commissions super cars and Ireland fights over car parks, the Danes pedal on. For a healthier population, less traffic, better air quality and less noise pollution, isn’t it time we joined the Danes and got on our bikes?
