Bike riding in Norway is a given. People were almost shocked it took me three days to get a bike, and whenever I show up somewhere without a bike people wonder how I arrived (I walked).
While there is still some subtleties about bike culture I'm teasing out (i.e. does everyone wear a helmet?), there have been some pretty important rules regarding bike riding that are vastly different than what I grew up with.
Shocker number one: It's okay to ride your bikes on the sidewalk. The only time in the US I've ever seen it be forgivable to ride your bike on the sidewalk is if you are
a) less than 10 and there is a lot of traffic or
b) accompanying multiple children less than 10.
There are some bike lanes here but, shocker number two, many bikes ride along with cars.
So then the real question is, what do you do at intersections, etc? The rule of thumb is if you are riding with pedestrians, you are supposed to act like a pedestrian (i.e. get off your bike and walk it across in the walk way). If you ride with cars, you are supposed to respect the rules of the road, such as stopping at red lights.
In practice, most people seem to do a blend of the two, switching a bit between road and sidewalk, and just biking across the walkway.
I have a lot of training to do before I will be able to comfortably bike with Norwegians (they put double digit kilometers behind them without breaking a sweat). It's a staple of living here though, so I've got to love my sykkelen.
Image via mottainaicycles
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