Are you a cyclist? If so, are you one among the many that carefully puts old faithful into storage during the winter months, convinced that all that rain, snow and ice is simply unsuitable for biking? Well, this Finnish town is living proof that winter cycling is absolutely possible with the right planning and infrastructure. It makes us feel a little soft for getting in the car at the sight of a little snow.
Pekka Tahkola, an urban well-being engineer for Navico Ltd. as well as a cycling coordinator for the City of Oulu, took a picture of the local school’s bicycle parking lot in -17C (1.4°F) recently to show that no matter what the weather conditions, nothing is keeping these children off their bikes.
Because though it may seem strange for some parents to let their children loose on two wheels, exposed to the freezing cold of a northern winter, in Finland, it is a perfectly healthy and normal thing to do.
Image credits: TapioKettunen, pekkatahkola
<
The route matters as much as the temperature
Pekka Tahkola's photograph, shared on Twitter in early February 2019, is striking because of the number of bicycles in a cold setting, but the temperature alone cannot explain whether a particular journey is manageable. Planning and infrastructure explain far more than children's toughness. Oulu, roughly 150 kilometres south of the Arctic Circle, treats winter maintenance of its cycle network as a priority: local cyclists told Euronews in 2021 that the main paths are reliably ploughed before the morning commute, and a CBC report described more than 900 kilometres of separated bike paths cleared by 6 a.m. Tahkola has explained that the steady cold helps: crews leave a thin layer of snow that packs down firmly, giving tyres good grip. A parent evaluating a route would also consider its continuity, crossings, visibility and surface condition. A protected path that is maintained regularly offers a different journey from a narrow road used by fast traffic, even if the thermometer shows the same reading.
What the photograph can start a discussion about
Oulu has also turned that experience into an international conversation. Tahkola and fellow advocate Timo Perälä founded the Winter Cycling Federation and held the first Winter Cycling Congress in Oulu in 2013. Tahkola told CBC that about 42 per cent of residents cycle at least occasionally in winter and roughly one in ten winter trips is made by bike; such figures come from local advocates and surveys, and they vary between sources and years. Rather than treating the image as a challenge to cycle in any weather, use it to ask what choices a town makes available. Can a child reach the school gate without a difficult gap in the route? Is there convenient parking on arrival? Is someone responsible for responding when conditions change? Those questions connect the everyday journey with the design of the wider neighborhood. The story describes an example in Oulu, not a rule for every Finnish school or a guarantee that every child can travel comfortably under identical conditions. Local judgment remains part of the picture.
COMMENTS