Bring out the bicycle!

Spring is slowly coming to Sweden - and with the snow and ice melting, many Swedes bring out their bicycles.  

• 

  Biking – healthy, inexpensive, fast and good for the environment. Many Swedes bike to work and school every day, at least after winter’s over with.

• Biking in Sweden is not a form of exercising, it’s a means of transportation and perhaps even a love affair (and something sorely missed by many a Swedish born in America).

• 

  Bikes are everywhere in bike friendly Sweden.

• In Sweden everybody bikes, the businessman straps his attaché case on the luggage carrier in the back (all bikes in Sweden have them), children bike to school (if they’re not small, in which case they are in a toddler seat in the back of mom or dad’s bike), even pregnant women bike.

• 

  Biking is getting more and more popular among Swedes. The number of pedaling commuters have doubled during the last decade. And the most popular bike? It is not something fancy, rather a regular bike but a good one, an expensive one. And preferably in a bold color. (Not a good example here...)

• According to a new survey, 20% of all Swedes are planning on buying a new bicycle this spring. At Blocket, a network of classified advertisements similar to the American Craigslist, there’s been some 500 000 hits on bicycles this past month. And that number is sure to increase as spring comes closer. Many Swedes have left the local bicycle store in favor of buying one online – actually 45% of all bicycle sales take place online. The average woman’s bicycle retails for 1500 SEK ($237) at Blocket, a man’s bicycle 1000 SEK ($158) and a one for a child 500 SEK ($79).

• 

  Far from there yet... but summer is definitely on its way. Photo by Håkan Sandbring.

• Still bike stores are doing well. Leif Amnesten has a combined bicycle and hockey store in Enskede, south of Stockholm, and he says: “The interest in bicycles is always great at this time of the year. I sell bikes for adults mainly, and I’ve almost sold all of the ones I had. People are always calling and asking about bikes.”