| The
city has 300km of bicycle lanes and about 124,000 cyclists ride to work in the
city center every day. There is no excuse for not
cycling. You can help yourself to one of the city's
free bicycles. They are released by inserting the
equivalent of \300 into a slot on the frame of the bike. The
money is recovered when the bike is left at another bike park around the city. Very
few city bikes are stolen, mainly because they are cheap bicycles and, furthermore,
they are easily recognizable by their brightly-painted wheels bearing the names
of sponsors. Very high import taxes and heavy road
taxes also help to control the number of cars in Denmark. Also,
urban planning helps to keep commuters out of their cars. For
example, it is forbidden to build a factory more than one kilometer from a train
station. Many downtown areas are completely free of
cars and shoppers can stroll for hundreds of meters without having to cross a
road. Even to people who love their cars, it is getting
obvious that the restrictions on their vehicles have made Copenhagen a much more
pleasant place to live and work in. | 
