VIDEO. Biking in the snow: how Finnish children are challenging the Arctic winter

“I like the bike, it’s more fun than the car,” seven-year-old Dana enthuses on her way home from school. “It’s strange to drive in the snow, and you can also see the traces of a bicycle. And we can go very, very fast,” admits the little girl, wrapped in a thick down jacket. On this day in mid-January, the thermometer showed -12°C, and a strong headwind was blowing. Very relatively cold, as last week the student was running in the snow at -28°C.

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Winter cycling capital of the world

This French woman has been living in Oulu, Finland, with her parents since the summer of 2019. Since then, she has been cycling in fresh snow, sometimes in icy conditions. Oulu, Finland’s fifth largest city with a population of 200,000, is one of Europe’s northernmost major metropolitan areas. Located 200 km from the Arctic Circle, this city has an average of at least 150 snow days a year, with temperatures sometimes reaching -30°C.

However, Oulu stands out as the winter cycling capital of the world. Here, the share of cycling in daily trips reaches a maximum of 22%. By comparison, Paris was still struggling to reach 5%, according to data collected by INSEE in 2017.

“This is special Finnish, we adapt!” »

At Dana’s Metsokankaan School, at least 1,000 of the 1,300 children ride bikes to and from school. “At the beginning of the year we said to ourselves, ‘We’ll support it all year,’ and then no, in the end, quite quickly, [Dana] made us understand that she was going to stand up for herself,” recalls Hugues Lanno, her father, “It’s a special Finnish language, we adapt!” “.

In this suburban and suburban area in the south of the city, leaving the school looks like a giant rush towards 4 bike racks. All you have to do is climb atop a pile of snow to see hundreds of colorful shots from a bird’s eye view and you’ll feel a little dizzy.

“2 cm of snow has to be cleared every 3 hours”

“And most of these bikes have summer tires,” says Pekka Tahkola, an urban planner and engineer specializing in cycling in Oulu. “Here you don’t need any special bikes, anything that makes you move is normal.” Only 35% of cyclists in Oulu are equipped with winter tires adorned with small studs.

Contrary to all expectations, riding in the snow is not a balancing act. Although very sharp turns and going off-piste in loose snow should be avoided, the roads are regularly maintained and provide good traction.

Six companies operate at any time of the day or night, serving 875 km of the network. “2 cm of snow has to be cleared every 3 hours. 4 cm is an absolute maximum that should never be reached,” recalls Markus Rovio, director of Oulun konetyö oy, the company responsible for clearing snow on the priority network. “It’s very rare that the roads are not clear of snow when you wake up in the morning,” confirms Hugues Lannot.

“Everything here is made for cycling”

If careful network maintenance makes cycling possible in all weathers, this in itself does not explain why the youngest ride without fear and without parents, even when darkness falls at 2 p.m.

What allows aspiring cyclists to be so independent is a child-friendly cycling network: wide, dense, continuous paths protected from car traffic. At rare intersections with vehicles, cyclists have priority. “Everything here is made for cycling. Bike paths start in front of the house and go to the school. There are more bike paths in this area than roads,” explains Dana’s father.

The more recent Metsokangas neighborhood, where this expat family lives, was designed to facilitate soft mobility. It is faster to travel by bicycle, while cars must systematically divert towards a more restricted circular route.

Infrastructure built since the 1960s.

In other parts of the city, cycling is also becoming a more efficient means of transportation in all weathers. In Oulu, the bicycle has survived the centuries, despite the advent of the automobile. “We’ve owned bicycles for over a hundred years. And, as you can see, it’s very easy for us,” says Päivi Laajala, mayor of the city since 2017.

In the 1960s, the first bicycle paths had already spread throughout the region. In 1972, a city plan strengthened the development of a separate and independent network for walking and cycling, with special funding.

One of the most significant infrastructures developed over more than 30 years: small concrete tunnels built under the road to prevent cyclists from crossing the road. This ensures that the most vulnerable are protected and travel becomes smoother. There are 300 of them in Oulu, scattered throughout the territory.

“To get people into cycling, we need to make it quick, easy and comfortable.”

A new project is being considered by the municipality: “bicycle roads” or “baans”. The routes will become even wider, better lit and laid out in such a way as to reduce distances as much as possible. There are already about ten kilometers in Oulu, and 76 km are planned to be built by 2030.

“We know well that in order for people to get on bicycles, we must make this practice quick, easy and comfortable,” insists engineer and urban planner Pekka Tahkola.

Every Sunday, a new episode of Biklou can be found on the Parisienne page on Facebook.