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Why Canadians Can’t Bike in the Winter (but Finnish people can)
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What’s going on everybody simple back at it like i’m checking my height today we’re checking out why canadians can’t bike in the winter but finnish people can and i’m actually really interested in this because about six hours north of me is canada we have a lot of winters
Here in new hampshire that get pretty harsh and i know from experience that biking can definitely get pretty difficult so if you guys enjoy this definitely make sure you guys head on over to not just bikes channel and show them some support over there as well
If you want to get your requests up here as always check out the google form down in the description and make sure you guys hit up the creator consortium that is where we are filming reactions live all the time let’s go here in the netherlands our family routinely takes advantage of the network
Of safe cycling paths found almost everywhere these are so safe that even our young children can cycle themselves to school activities and friends houses and they have become an important part of the high quality of life we experience here unfortunately all of this is completely impossible back in canada because there
We have winter and of course you can’t cycle in the winter or so i’m told repeatedly by people who’ve never tried it yes it’s like this is the city of in finland it is considered the winter cycling capital of the world this is a city where 22 of all trips are
Taken by bicycle and where 77 percent of the population says they cycle at least occasionally and yet despite their harsh winters over half of these people cycle all year round and it’s not just the young and the strong who cycle in the winter here you’ll see even very elderly people
Cycling in minus 20 degree weather this is what the bicycle parking lot of a typical elementary school in olu looks like in january because 52 of all trips to school and university are taken by bicycle that is so crazy somehow even little finnish kids can cycle all year
Round so this does lead to the obvious question why are canadians such giant wimps america’s been asking ourselves that for a long time shout out to my canadians but maybe it’s not quite that simple this is the city of tampara also in finland despite the fact that finnish people
Call this a swimming pool far fewer people cycle in tempura compared to olu hold on a second i’m sorry the city of tampara also in finland despite the fact that finnish people call this a swimming pool my friends i know it’s winter for a long time but that is not a swimming pool
That is freezing cold literally that’s rough man i don’t think i’ve ever done a polar plunge i’d be afraid my heart would stop honestly i don’t think i have enough meat in my bones for that far fewer people cycle in tempura compared to olu so why see that’s
That’s when it’s hard all of the slushy like broken up stuff especially when it re-freezes and you’re just like riding through all the ruts it definitely sucks but it’s doable fortunately we don’t have to guess because researchers have studied and written papers about winter cycling and the results are very clear
In cities with cold winters there is almost no correlation between winter temperatures and the amount of winter cycling let that sink in the temperature and weather conditions do not significantly affect the level of winter cycling in a city it is a complete myth that people do not cycle
In the winter because of the cold so what does the research tell us well there need to be two things in place to get people to cycle like they do in olu first is there a network of safe bicycle paths no is it possible to get to where
You want to go without having to share the road or regularly cross paths with high-speed motor traffic no but why is there a dude canoeing through the ice i just noticed that first is there a network look at this guy down here how are you even breaking through that first of all
Because you can see all the stuff that’s just floating at you is it possible to get to where you want to go without having to share the road or regularly cross completely distracted motor traffic this is something that olu does exceptionally well olu has 875 kilometers of separated bicycle
Paths that connect every part of the city and they take care of the bicycle path for every resident see that’s the difference look how well this path is taken care of even out here in new hampshire they do the sidewalks last because people aren’t really expected to be walking around
When it’s like that out um maybe it’s because we have more traffic i don’t know it’s just more dangerous i don’t think that seems like a viable answer to it though i think people are just lazy honestly i enjoy biking in the wintertime it’s a little bit easier to breathe
In fact olu has only about 600 meters of painted bicycle lanes in the entire city which makes perfect sense because when it snows you can’t see white paint but you can see images cleverly projected on the snow from above that is super cool i love that we have street lights up
Anyway why not just have the street light projecting images done that is so cool and this is not some kind of super compact medieval european city either olu has plenty of car centric sprawl and many people live in single-family homes in fact it has almost exactly the same
Urban population density as my hometown of london ontario in canada like this is creepy how close these numbers are and why is it that every city has the ugliest flags except for amsterdam anyway there is literally zero reason why a typical mid-sized canadian city couldn’t be like olu if it was designed
Properly olu just takes the effort to connect every resident to the places they want to go with safe paths for walking and cycling and even better many of these bicycle paths are designed to be shortcuts that are faster than driving and a big part of it too um
Our bike paths we have started painting bike paths on the sides of the roads and you’re no longer allowed to ride your bike on the sidewalks in the areas that i live in right so it forces you out into the street but what do you do when there is no bike
Path and you’re still not allowed to ride your bicycle on the sidewalk now you have to ride in traffic right there is no other option so it makes it a lot more dangerous because people don’t people here aren’t paying attention to people on bicycles i’ll say it that way there’s people hit in
My hometown at least twice a year um and it’s pedestrians on bicycles you know it it’s a really sad thing that people just don’t pay attention enough what else is really sad though is that they don’t utilize some of the land and they build houses so close to
The road that there’s really no option or no other places to maybe it’s just the design the urban design forging people to cycle even more just as it’s done in the netherlands and if that wasn’t enough olu also has over 300 underpasses that pedestrians and cyclists can use to avoid major
Roads these make it possible to cycle entire journeys without ever encountering a traffic light or even needing to stop this should not be a surprise to anyone a network of safe bicycle lanes is the single biggest predictor for the level of cycling in any city in the world it’s
Significantly more important than any other metric including culture distance hills and in this case weather after a safe bicycle network the next most important element is snow removal is the bicycle network properly maintained in the winter and this is the real key to olo’s success as there are
Very very very few cities that do this well toronto as an example is a city with fairly mild winters compared to finland and most of canada for that matter yet very very few people cycle there in the winter when you look at videos of winter cycling in toronto is there any surprise
Most of toronto’s bicycle paths are painted bicycle gutters these become dumping grounds for snow they’re routinely driven over by drivers leaving treadmill that’s exactly what our bike paths look like look how close you have to drive like you have an elbow over that line the whole time and there’s if somebody’s
Watching their cell phone and driving and they just happen you know what i mean that’s all it takes and that’s that’s what happens all the time unfortunately there’s so much space in between the only downside is we have these giant light posts everywhere in between the lanes so it’s not even like
You could ride up middle of lane it’s always split and one side of it you can’t ride on i mean look how small the sidewalks are it’s insanity parks that melt and re-freeze into impassable paths of jagged ice forcing cyclists to share the road with cars yep even the proper separated bicycle paths
Often get snow dumped in them by snow plows yep and only a fraction of the already minuscule bicycle network is maintained in the winter the city says they don’t look like that one looked like it was on like a what they call it a byway or pathway or whatever parkway probably a parkway
I feel like that looks similar to the one in connecticut but i would never ride a bicycle down that holy crap people do like 90 down there and it is a one lane road just like that but uh urban design here kind of sucks i guess the already minuscule bicycle is
What it is in the winter but i mean i’m in america so start plowing unless there’s more than five centimeters of snow oh this is the reason why few people cycle through the winter in toronto or any other canadian city and that’s the reason why you can’t ride on the sidewalks
The priority bicycle routes are all plowed within three hours of a two centimeter snowfall and they will be plowed multiple times per day if necessary snow removal contractors guarantee that the depth of the snow will never exceed four centimeters and they maintain the pass with hard
Packed snow that is free of ice and debris making it easy to cycle on to put it simply the bicycle pass and olu are considered important pieces of infrastructure that get people from point a to point b so they don’t want cyclists to start competing for space on public transit or
Worse to drive cars just because it snowed they make it a priority yeah they use fewer vehicles to maintain bike paths so that people can actually use them like it’s incredibly smart olu proves that cold is not the issue snow is not the issue winter is a lazy
Excuse behind that thing is so cool the discussion of safe road infrastructure go away the snow might explain why only 22 of trips in your city are taken by bicycle instead of say 42 percent but when less than 2 percent of your population rides a bike it’s not because of the weather
It’s because people don’t feel safe cycling the truth is cycling in cold weather is really not bad at all toronto routinely gets cold days but without much snow where the roads are perfectly clear so after getting sick of waiting on transit vehicles that were constantly stuck in traffic because canadian public
Transit is stupid and counterproductive a little bit of a mind i decided to try cycling to work in the winter and it was fine there’s nothing hardcore or extreme about cycling in winter i did it and i assure you i am not a particularly tough person just ask my brother you mean my
Brother he’s a total wimp at first i had some problems with ice but then i discovered studded winter time seems believable these things are like magic on ice i never slipped once when using them yeah it’s interesting to note though that most people do not use studded tires in olu because when you
Plow your bicycle paths properly they’re not slippery at all and the same goes for sidewalks seriously winter maintenance of the sidewalks and bicycle paths in olu is incredible this is complicated and expensive but it’s still a fraction of the cost of maintaining wide roads and highways for cars
Olu shows what is possible if your city isn’t bankrupt from maintaining too much car infrastructure olu tracks data on cyclists very well with automated bicycle detectors like these what’s interesting is that the number of people cycling in winter stays pretty consistent until the temperature goes below about minus 20 degrees and even
Then it only drops by 15 percent this may surprise you but one thing i consistently hear from people who try winter cycling is that they’re a lot warmer than they thought they’d be i thought cycling in the winter would be frigidly cold but you warm up surprisingly quickly
And cycling in the snow is actually quite pleasant drivers typically drive much slower the noise pollution of the city is muffled and it’s easy to maintain a comfortable temperature in all but the coldest weather conditions i definitely prefer it by far to cycling in the rain
Yes some people like to talk about the gear you need for winter cycling so i’ll share what i would typically wear when cycling in the winter first i recommend a jacket this is like a big warm shirt that you wear over your clothes next you’ll need gloves
These are kind of like shoes but for your hands which is why both the dutch and the germans call them hand shoes i’d also recommend one of these woolen head coverings and shoes by many different names but they’re all wrong it’s called a toque now that you’ve got your specialized
Gear you’re ready to go cycling in the winter i can tell you that i did not know that a toque okay sure now when the temperatures get really cold like below minus 20 degrees you’ll want to wear more layers and a scarf but it’s exactly the same kind of
Clothing that canadians routinely wear when skiing snowmobiling or doing any other kind of winter activity you can even get pogies for your bike to keep your hands warm with the same kind of clothing that canadians routinely wear when skiing snowmobiling or doing any other kind of winter activity
You can even get pogies for your bike to keep your hands warm just like they do for snowmobiles oh that’s great thankfully several canadian cities have stopped giving cyclists the cold shoulder and are warming up to the idea of winter cycling though progress is still glacial insert joke about snow
Yes edmonton alberta recently built a network of protected bicycle lanes downtown and now plows the protected bicycle network with the same priority as major roads when i was in yellowknife which is here i was impressed by the quality of the new bicycle infrastructure they were installing and montreal saw an 83 percent increase
In winter cycling in 2020 over the previous year’s average likely due in part to the addition of more separated bicycle lanes they’ve also started to use not just snowplows but ice crushing machines like this one to clear the bicycle paths and i really enjoy the driving music in the manufacturer’s marketing video
That is so sick but while this is good progress all of this pales in comparison to olu edmonton only plows a small 8 kilometer bike network downtown and only within 24 hours most of yellowknife’s bike network is still painted bicycle gutters and montreal puts away their bike share bikes for the winter
Unfortunately winter is still used as the number one excuse for inaction in canadian cities even in cities that get very little snow in the winter meanwhile olu gets more snow than almost any major city in canada canadians also love to exaggerate about the cold but most canadian cities only
Get a handful of really truly cold days per year just like finland but when your only exposure to winter is the walk across the parking lot to your car you never get used to the weather and you get an exaggerated sense of how cold it gets yep
Because it is a known fact that if you are cold like say it’s cold outside right and there’s a nice blazing fire and you go stand next to that fire and warm yourself up when you walk away and it’s still the same temperature that means you’re feeling that
Temperature difference you see what i’m saying so when you’re like 80 90 degrees and you walk away and it’s zero that’s a 90 degree difference that you are feeling and that’s why people think that it’s so much colder than it actually is it’s not it’s just facts
It’s just fact is that you could do the same thing if it’s really hot outside and you go inside and it’s air conditioned it’s like you know 60 degrees 57 degrees inside and you walk back outside and it’s 100 degrees it’s going to feel blazing hot because your body isn’t used like
Ultimately like everything else with cycling it just comes down to safety and convenience for that doesn’t significantly change that a great place to learn more is the winter cycling congress that happens every february this event brings together advocates and professionals with a goal of making year-round cycling a normal and
Practical activity a viable transportation option for people of all ages and abilities regardless of winter weather conditions this year the congress is being held online on february so it’s easier than ever to let’s go more information on that is in the comments and at wintercycling.org but whether you attend the winter
Cycling congress or not we need more people to learn the truth about winter cycling it’s not the cold it’s not the snow it’s a proven fact that people of all ages will ride a bicycle in the winter but only if the city is designed for it and more places should be designed this
Way so that cities can be as healthy productive convenient and sustainable as olu in the town i grew up in i wouldn’t even ride a bike half the time in the summertime i’d rather just walk because it’s easier to walk there’s actual paths meant for walking
Everywhere but most of them you are not allowed to ride a bicycle on so it makes it extremely difficult to get to where you want to go that is a distance without a vehicle here it really sucks and i like i said i’m in new hampshire
So i’m like six hours from the border sucks i’d like to thank my supporters on patreon who pay me to call out wimpy snowflake canadians who can’t handle a little bit of cold if you’d like support i’d like to thank you as well olu i’d like to thank my supporters on
Patreon who pay me to call out wimpy snowflake canadians who can’t handle a little bit of cold that’s awesome if you’d like to support the channel and get access to bonus videos visit patreon.com not just bikes Big old intro or out intro outro see i didn’t use my bald spot for that one a little bit of b-roll footage of him riding that’s pretty cool i’m gonna check this out um let me know what you guys thought about this one down in the
Comments below uh let me know where to go from here if you guys did enjoy it make sure you head on over to his channel and show him some support over there as always make sure you check out the creator consortium google forms down in the description as well
Hit up one of the other videos before you take off and i’ll catch you on the next one
35 Comments
2:56 dipping in a freezing cold water is normal for Russia, Finland, Sweden, and Iceland. It's refreshing!
@04:20 the river isn't frozen that's why there is a person kayaking, see the steam? it means that the water is warmer than the air.
I learned how to drive with a car during the winter. It was easier than during the summer, because when I left the lights, I could just floor the gaspedal and release the clutch, the wheels keeps spinning until they get a grip and that's quite normal sight during the winter. If I would've done that during the summer, my burnouts would've attracted plenty of cops. (I did not have a licence)
I’d say there are two important reasons why Oulu is such a successful winter cycling city: 1) the landscape is completely flat there, just like in Amsterdam 2) it’s far north enough to have consistent, cold winters. I live in Helsinki in the south of Finland, our landscape is very hilly, but most importantly, our winters move around the freezing point all the time, which means slush and frozen slush, which means hard, uneven ice. I also think we receive more precipitation here than up north, which means that we will sometimes have extensive amounts of snow coming during 1-2 days -> full snow chaos. Helsinki is also considerably more densely built than Oulu. During hard winters, like 21-22, I’d say it’s almost impossible to bike here. Just get yourself a monthly HRT-pass and wait for spring.
Stop whining, when I was young and went to school in Finland I rode bike and everywhere else, it was my freedom machine 🤪
He was joking about the touque. It's a word used only in Canada. It comes from Canadian French "tuque" and refers to a knitted cap with a proper ball-shaped thingy at the top, and preferably with a hockey team logo on it. When I lived in the U.S. for awhile, I got blank stares when I used the word.
As for the Finns, you have to remember that they are totally crazy. We have a whole bunch of them in Northern Ontario, especially around the town of Thunder Bay. They routinely heat themselves up in their saunas, then run outdoors naked and jump into the snow. They think this is "spiritual" and have a whole mystique about it. Crazy, but good dudes to have at your side in a dangerous situation.
2:51 Voi vittu oo hiljaa, se on uima-allas. Meni kyl jäätävästi tunteisiin tää.
Ice baths from time to time are actually really good for your health. Of course it takes a little bit of training how long those ice baths can be taken but your heart and mind are working better after it. So your heart can handle it just fine its your mind telling you it cant.
WTF = Welcome to Finland
This is so easy, just go to the sauna and then to the water and swim. And it is not difficult to go by bike to anywhere you like.
5.03 Why do hey do that…? because if people get hurt it and will cos a lot for the health care and they find it is better for to make it as safe as possible and keep the people healthy and take care of them self which they are educated since a very young age.
2:50 Actually we call that "Avanto" and translates to "hole in the ice" even though it does not directly do, there just isn't a word for this in the English dictionary.
But isn't a swimming pool, a pool of water, in which one can swim? This is essentially that 😀
16:30 Huh? We get about 2 months of -15-30 celcius in winter, if thats a "few" to his accord I beg to differ, could even be 3-4 months of cold winter, but average is 2 months. December/January.
I live in Oulu and have taken our bikelanes and infrastructure for granted, I recently visited England and they have the same thing as U.S, bikes basically ride only on the driveway which is completely crazy to me.
That is a swimming pool.
2:46 Quiet wimp, it's a swimming pool. Also it's actualy fat that insulates not muscle.
I biked in Helsinki and Stockholm year around, you just needed to get into the middle gear before it froze. Here in Los Angeles by the beach, salt is a problem. I still bile year around. It can actually be faster than anything else during the rush hour. And it very seldom rains.
Get that studded winter tire for your front wheel, at least, and you should be ok most of the time. You definitely will be a lot less likely to end your life face first and mid-thought, as tends to happen to some of the cyclists with an unstudded front wheel during the early and late winters. Some black ice will be out there to get you, sooner or later. At certain temperatures that powdery soft looking snow hides a blood-thirsty slippery surface left by the tires of those large snow plowing machines, and there's another chance for you to take your place in the statistics.
So, get the studs and the helmet, and learn how the snow and the ice under it (mis)behaves. If you're a lazy bastard like me, you can use that studded front tire all year around. Warm greetings from Finland.
use studded soft winter tires
Yep… that's not a swimming pool. Me too.. fucking cold. But he didn't tell true story… behind of camera is a sauna. There is +80 to +95°C 😆
Canadian and especially Toronto public transit is shit beyond believe and at a ludicrous price! And show removal you pretty much have to beg for unless some absurd "the conditions are met". The way a supposedly northern country does not know how to handle snow is insane! We went fuck that shit and moved to Europe and there's no comparison how organized stuff is even if where we've been and live now is not nearly as cool as Oulo
It's not easy being a plow driver in Finland. My friend worked 120 hours overtime in January, took a February off for burnout and did another 100 hours of overtime during the following two months. He quit due to pure exhaustion. He frequently worked 18-hour shifts on days when the snowfall wouldn't stop. When he had cleared one part of the city, another one he'd already cleared that work shift could require him to clear them again. Although, it was partly my friend's fault as well; his boss hadn't apparently realized how much of the company's work he'd been doing until he quit. Just to show how seriously the upkeep of roads is taken here.
Uhhh, that is the French flag, not the Dutch flag … But I still like the video 🙂
One thing I would add is that you need a bicycle helmet, if you want to keep your head safe. No matter what kind of studs you have on your bicycle tires, you have to keep your head safe. I cycle all around the year here in Finland, and I have fell so many times because of ice or loose snow. If you break your leg, it will heal. But breaking your skull, it might not be such a fun thing.
Because they don’t have the infrastructure for bicycles and they love the comfort of their cars. The majority wouldn’t sacrifice their conform to help the environment and health. Another reason is that most of the Canadians are originally from warmer countries in Europe, Africa and Asia therefore don’t really cherish winter.
Finns are a part of the Uralic people who originally inhabited Northern Europe. So they can withstand cold conditions better than usual.
That dude in the canoe is using special ice-breaker model.
You'r talking about English Canada, because French Canada we do cycle in winter
it’s actually kinda crazy to think about that the thing that i do almost everyday is DEADLY in Canada 11:37
No i don't use spiked tires in winter becuase then it is not possible to drift.
Such a wonderful swimming pool 🎉
It’s called pipo 🙄
I sincerely think bicycles should be allowed to ride on pedestrian roads. Speed difference between bikers and pedestrians is a fraction of what it is between bikers and cars, any collisions are way safer, and as seen in the video, a bike lane at the side of a motorway is outright suicidal when it's snowy and slippery.
Maybe they think of better people who think that proper fitness is only programmed and costs a lot….
those painted bike paths are dangerous and should not be 'integrated' into the motorway. They should be built 'away' from the motorway. Poor city design.