Photo by Shannon Donegan.

A version of this story originally appeared on Sightline.

I fell in love with cycling during six months I spent traveling the world’s great bicycle cities. The ease, safety, convenience … (dreamy sigh)

But as my trip came to an end, I began to realize the reason for my infatuation: Residents of cities like those in Denmark and Holland inject cycling with fun, whimsy, and even romance.

Certainly, many Americans love their bikes, but even more of us would if we learned these five lessons on cycling’s soft side from the world’s active-transport capitals.

1. Human powered travel is romantic. Throughout my travels, I saw all kinds of romance on the cycle tracks — teenagers kissing at stoplights in Paris, older couples holding hands while pedaling in Amsterdam, and a post-wedding getaway bicycle in Copenhagen.

I live in Seattle, and I bike home from work with my boyfriend almost every evening. It’s one of the best parts of my day. We talk about what we see along the way or what smells are coming from the Hostess Cake Factory. When it’s sunny, we sometimes stop for a beer. When it’s a crisp winter night, we watch the ships pass under the Fremont Bridge. When it’s raining, we talk about what kind of soup we want to make for dinner. Biking together through the elements bonds us in a way that would never happen if we were strapped into a car.

The average U.S. worker now spends about 48 minutes commuting each day. Despite the billions of hours we collectively spend commuting, we don’t often talk about the way our transportation choices make us feel — physically or mentally. Maybe we should.

2. You don’t have to be a “cyclist” to ride a bike. Recreational subcultures have owned cycling in North America for a long time. That’s starting to change and it’s an important cultural shift. “None of these people consider themselves cyclists,” Andreas Hammershøj from the Danish Cycling Embassy explained to me last June as we stood on a sidewalk watching swarms of Copenhageners pedal across the Dronning Louises bridge, as 10,000-30,000 do daily. “These are just people getting to work, school, or the grocery store.”

There are Americans who, like Copenhageners, would like to get from A to B on their bikes but don’t ever want to ride a century. (They might not even care to know what a century ride is.) That’s fine. You don’t have to identify with the recreational side of cycling to use a bike for transportation. Just ask Blake Trask, the statewide policy director of the Bicycle Alliance of Washington: “I’m not much of a cyclist,” he says. “I just ride my bike to work most days.”

3. You don’t need a racing bike. Henry Cutler, the Dutch-American owner of WorkCycles in Amsterdam, is convinced that urban cycling will explode once Americans get off high-performance bikes and onto bikes that are upright, comfortable, and utilitarian. “Americans ride bikes that are like race cars; Dutch bikes are like Honda Civics and mini-vans,” Cutler joked last July as I admired his fleet of practical bikes. They come outfitted with child seats, baskets, bells, chain guards, and front and rear lights powered by your pedaling. Oh, and kickstands: Why don’t bikes have kickstands anymore?

Tom Fuculoro, author of the Seattle Bike Blog, got it right when he wrote recently that buying a bike ought to be more like buying a car: “Most people aren’t fascinated by the technical aspects of car engines; they’re sold by the sunroof or cup-holders.”

David Schmidt, owner of The Dutch Bike Shop in Seattle reports that the useful bike trend is gaining steam. “Ninety percent of our clients haven’t ridden a bike since they were kids. They’re rediscovering cycling because it’s fun and simpler than driving,” he says. “These aren’t the crusader commuters. They’re just people who want to start biking to the grocery store.”

4. Biking is healthy — and cheap. Most people reading this article are sitting in front of a computer. More and more of us are “knowledge workers” who sit in front of computers for much of our careers. If you also choose to use passive forms of transportation such as driving or taking the bus, doctors recommend that you compensate for your sedentary lifestyle by “working out.”

Unfortunately, I didn’t find much time in my schedule to compensate — and I wasn’t alone. The Center for Disease Control reports that 80 percent [PDF] of Americans fail to meet federal guidelines for physical activity despite the $19 billion we shell out for gym memberships each year.

Why can’t activity just be engineered into our daily lives so that we can stay healthy without the added chore of working out? Cycling has been the solution for me. I typically burn about 500 calories a day pedaling myself to the places I need to go, and going to the gym is never on the to-do list anymore. Having one less chore means I have more free time to spend with the people I love.

5. Women love biking. Studies have shown that women are more risk averse than men, but once they’re sold on cycling, they enjoy multiple benefits.

A study done in London showed that 73 percent of London residents who participated in on-road cycling training programs were women. The same study interviewed female cyclists and found that “cycling helps bolster a self-confident, independent identity” for many women.

Why else is it important to get more women riding? American women make more major household decisions than men and can hence influence the entire family to get out of the car and on to bikes. Some people also assert that more women cycling can contribute to a more visually pleasing urban environment.

Whether I’m in Seattle or Copenhagen, I always find that cycling helps me experience and engage with the urban environment in new and meaningful ways. Before I started cycling, I often wondered why bike advocates were so passionate about helping others discover cycling. Now I realize, they were just trying to spread the love.

Cross-posted from Sightline Daily.

In the Seattle suburb where I grew up, the main transportation choice most residents face is what kind of car to buy. I moved to the city after college and, inspired by the “car-lite” lifestyles of several friends, decided to give cycling a try.

I fell in love with it. Urban cycling freed me from slow buses, parking meters, and mind-numbing elliptical machines. I arrived at work with more energy. I lost weight. I discovered charming neighborhood restaurants. I could smell fresh laundry and dinners in the oven while I pedaled home through residential streets. Getting from A to B on my bike became the best part of my day.

Recently, I won a fellowship and got to spend six months living life on two wheels in the world’s most bike-friendly cities. I brought home 10 lessons for us here in the States:

A bike lane in Denmark. (Photo by Christine Grant.)

1. It’s the infrastructure, stupid!

Amazing infrastructure makes cycling normal and safe in bike meccas. For example, parked cars to the left of the bike lane not only provide a barrier between motorized traffic and cyclists, they also minimize a cyclist’s chance of getting “doored.” Most cars only have one occupant, the driver, and drivers get out on the left.

Bikes move at different speeds than cars or pedestrians, so intersections are safer for cyclists if they have their own traffic signal rhythm. Cyclists in Copenhagen generally get a slight head start over cars so that they’ll be more visible as they cross the intersection.

2. Bike share!

Bike-share programs are sweeping the world, and they are very successful at boosting bike numbers. About 130,000 trips are made each day in Paris on public bikes thanks to the pioneering Vélib bike-share program.

Barcelona's bike-share program has been wildly succesful at boosting ridership. (Photo by Christine Grant.)

In Barcelona, people used to point and stare if you were pedaling a bike, but in just a few years, a bike-share program called Bicing has changed that. Bicing started in 2007 and quickly tripled cycling trips in the city, according to Miquel Ruscalleda, who directs Barcelona’s cycling efforts. Currently 46 percent of the people you see on bikes in Barcelona are on bright red Bicing bikes.

Ruscalleda also reports that the “safety in numbers” phenomenon is working in his city. Cyclists had a .008 percent chance of being in a traffic accident in 2005, and the rate has dropped to around .005 percent presently.

3. It’s safer than a sofa.

Sedentary living doubles the risk of cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and obesity. Combating diseases of sedentary living requires 30 minutes of moderate exercise every day — a minimum many people around the world are unable to meet. But almost 40 percent of Copenhagen residents meet their minimum exercise requirements by cycling to work or school.

Copenhagen’s Public Health Department calculates that even when accident costs are factored in, every mile of cycling translates to net health benefits worth $1.30. A recent public health campaign in Copenhagen reminded residents, “You’re safer on your bike than on the sofa!”

Barcelona's bike counter. (Photo by Christine Grant.)

4. Say “thank you.”

Cyclists also save city governments money by reducing traffic congestion, stormwater run-off, air pollution, and road maintenance expenditures. Many cities are doing little things to show their gratitude.

Barcelona recently installed a counter on a main route displaying the time, temperature, bike count for the day, and progress toward the official annual ridership goal for that route.

Copenhagen has begun putting in footrests at intersections. They say, “Hi, cyclist! Rest your foot here … and thank you for cycling in the city!”

5. Turn streets into backyards.

Dutch road engineer Hans Monderman hated traffic signs in cities and towns. His reasoning was simple: Most drivers don’t look at signs. Speed bumps and stop signs also don’t do much because drivers are notorious for accelerating to “make up time” after each interruption.

Monderman redesigned Dutch towns so that drivers felt like they were passing through someone’s backyard. Monderman’s “backyard” plans called for street furniture — benches, picnic tables, sand boxes, pea patches, trees, flowerpots, and ping pong tables. Drivers either saw or sensed the presence of people and children, and basic social laws kicked in: It isn’t polite to speed through someone’s backyard.

Many residential streets throughout Europe now embody Monderman’s principles.

6. Let prices tell the truth.

Driving — and parking — is much more expensive in other parts of the world. Filling up a tank of gas in Japan will cost you about $7.25 per gallon, and gas prices in most European countries are also much higher than in the U.S.

Donald Shoup, an economist and the author of The High Cost of Free Parking says, “People who want to store their car shouldn’t store it on the most valuable land on the planet, for free.” Street parking is typically $4.50 per hour in European cities.

A woman in Kyoto bikes in heels. (Photo by Christine Grant.)

7. You don’t need “bike clothes.”

Most of the women and men I saw on bicycles throughout Europe and Japan didn’t wear special clothes. People just wore their usual outfits, heels and all.

Women from London to Tokyo looked beautiful, stylish, and feminine while they were cycling. Men frequently pedaled in suits. “Style over speed,” says Mikael Colville-Anderson, who started the Cycle Chic movement.

8. Electrify it.

A cargo bike with two kids and groceries can be hard to get up hills. That’s why many parents in hilly Zurich, Switzerland, use electric-assist bikes. They can also help people who are battling obesity or recovering from a heart attack. A bike shop owner I interviewed in Zurich makes custom electric-assist bicycles for disabled customers who would otherwise be dependent on public transportation.

For this mother and her daughters in Kyoto, biking is a family affair. (Photo by Christine Grant.)

9. Admit it: It’s emotional.

Smell and touch are the senses most linked to our emotions. In Europe and Japan, I spoke with dozens of urban cyclists who talked about the curious happiness derived from activating your senses and connecting with your city on a bicycle. One Amsterdam father’s voice actually cracked with emotion as he reflected on his morning and afternoon rides with his son. His toddler sat in a front-mounted childseat. The father talked about how nice it was to smell his son’s head during the commute to day care.

10. It’s a virtuous cycle.

“Cycling isn’t just a part of the Dutch DNA,” Marc van Woudenberg told me in Amsterdam, where 47 percent of residents make at least one trip per day on a bicycle.

The Dutch have the highest rates of utility cycling in the world because citizens have made it clear to politicians that cycling infrastructure is a priority. Better infrastructure recruits more people onto bikes, which creates more advocates for better infrastructure, which recruits more people onto bikes, and so on. Today, the Dutch continue to advocate for infrastructure that will facilitate cycling.

After six months on my bicycling wanderjahr, I’m inspired by all the creative ways cities are transforming themselves to meet the needs of the 21st century: low on carbon, high on physical activity, low on noise and danger, high on fun and style. Here in the U.S., we have exciting opportunities to join the world’s great bike cities and redefine urban transportation on two wheels.