In the 1960s, cars were threatening to displace bicycles in the main Danish cities. But the oil crisis, the environmental movement and a couple of controversial road projects reversed the trend. This is however just part of the story behind why Danes still cycle so much.
With the bicycle, ordinary men and women suddenly gained much more freedom of movement. The bicycle was their ticket out of the inner city's cramped tenement houses and into the clean air of the rapidly growing suburbs. In a Danish context, the bicycle has been inextricably linked with freedom ever since.
Photographs of urban scenes from the 1930s clearly show how Danish cities became cities of bicycles in the first half of the 1900s. People from all social classes cycled on a large scale and several professions also adopted the bicycle – today cycling postmen and home helpers are still a permanent part of street life. The bicycles' first heyday lasted for half a century until around 1960, when the increasing standard of living slowly but surely made car ownership possible for more and more families. That development was welcomed because cars and single-family houses were vigorous symbols that the depression of the 1930s and the darkness of World War 2 had lifted, and that a brighter future lay ahead.
