Kids In Finland Continue To Ride Bicycles To School In -17°C (1.4°F) Weather And It’s A Lesson In Commuting
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Are you a cyclist? If so, are you one of the many who carefully puts old faithful into storage over the winter months, convinced that all that rain, snow and ice is just unsuitable for biking? Well, this Finnish town is living proof that winter cycling is perfectly possible with the right planning and infrastructure, and making us feel a little soft for getting in the car at the sight of a little snow.
Pekka Tahkola, an urban well-being engineer for Navico Ltd. and a cycling coordinator for the City of Oulu, took a photo of the local school’s bicycle parking lot in -17C recently to show that no matter what the conditions, nothing is keeping these kids off their bikes.
Because although it might seem strange for some parents to let their kids loose on two wheels, exposed to the icy cold of a northern winter, here in Finland it’s a perfectly normal and healthy thing to do. “We organized a study tour for participants from southern Finland for them to see how cycling to school is taken care of in our city,” Pekka told the informative environmental website MNN. “We visited a couple of schools and also spoke a lot with local teachers and principals. I’m pretty sure this school is among the best ones. It is definitely not the only one, and there are numerous schools in Oulu where the majority of kids cycle and walk to school.”
Image credits: pekkatahkola
Image credits: pekkatahkola
Image credits: pekkatahkola
Image credits: pekkatahkola
Image credits: pekkatahkola
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“It’s normal; always been like that. I cycled and kicksledded to school when I was a kid, too,” he says. “And it’s the same thing even in minus 30 C.”
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Yey Finland! My neighbouring nation, my bro, my forest raking buddies ✊
It's hard for me as a Swede to understand why this is a big deal, people ride bikes in -27°C bikes are more reliable than a car or bus as they easily break down in the cold
It is probably connected to the latest polar vortex in US as they were complaining for -10C which was described as a polar weather...
Haha that my friend is greatly untrue. My state commonly gets -24C in Winter and that is considered cold but -10C? We all are still wearing shorts! What part of the US are you referring to because your wrong lol. Also every climate is different! I would love to see how Sweden handles 115F or 46C with 90% humidity. That would be funny lol.
Kids in Finland ride bikes to school in below freezing weather, while kids in America get driven to school a block away. Let me tell you how ridiculous it is where I live (a quiet suburb in California). In the image I posted, you see a school. Yous ee houses directly across from the school. There's a woman that lives in one of those houses. She DRIVES her son to and from school every day. She backs out of her driveway, to the sidewalk in front of the school, drops her kid off, and pulls forward back into her driveway. Then repeats the process int he afternoon. Yep. Capture-5c...24-png.jpg
I live in a very cold northern state in the US where it gets 0° or -10° all the time in winter and kids are walking to school. They aren't wimps lol. Maybe it's just California haha.
Oy.
Telia
There is value in teaching kids to cross the road. And not get obese.
Yey Finland! My neighbouring nation, my bro, my forest raking buddies ✊
It's hard for me as a Swede to understand why this is a big deal, people ride bikes in -27°C bikes are more reliable than a car or bus as they easily break down in the cold
It is probably connected to the latest polar vortex in US as they were complaining for -10C which was described as a polar weather...
Haha that my friend is greatly untrue. My state commonly gets -24C in Winter and that is considered cold but -10C? We all are still wearing shorts! What part of the US are you referring to because your wrong lol. Also every climate is different! I would love to see how Sweden handles 115F or 46C with 90% humidity. That would be funny lol.
Kids in Finland ride bikes to school in below freezing weather, while kids in America get driven to school a block away. Let me tell you how ridiculous it is where I live (a quiet suburb in California). In the image I posted, you see a school. Yous ee houses directly across from the school. There's a woman that lives in one of those houses. She DRIVES her son to and from school every day. She backs out of her driveway, to the sidewalk in front of the school, drops her kid off, and pulls forward back into her driveway. Then repeats the process int he afternoon. Yep. Capture-5c...24-png.jpg
I live in a very cold northern state in the US where it gets 0° or -10° all the time in winter and kids are walking to school. They aren't wimps lol. Maybe it's just California haha.
Oy.
Telia
There is value in teaching kids to cross the road. And not get obese.