January 23, 2021 - Despite their 5-month long, dark, and snow-filled winters, the people of Oulu, Finland keep pedalling their way to and from work and school according to an article in Euronews by Sara Lilja Steensig.

Around one-in-five of all trips made in Oulu are by bike, a figure that falls to 12% in the winter. By comparison, in London, around 2% of all trips are made by bicycle. Even on very cold winter days, hundreds of unlocked bikes stand in the snow outside of Oulu’s schools as a testimony to their popularity.

One of the key reasons is the city prioritizes cycle infrastructure and maintenance during the winter months and a digital map shows the condition of routes for pedestrians, cars and bicycles in real-time.

In 2013, Timo Perälä and Pekka Tahkola founded the Winter Cycling Federation and held the first-ever Winter Cycling Congress in Oulu which has since been hosted by cities in Canada, the Netherlands, the United States, and Russia. The 2021 event will be held online on February 11.

Read more here.