Danish--riding to green

The Shanghai 2010 Expo comes to an close today!!! Let's say bye-bye to the Expo by watching this interesting video about biking through the Danish Pavilion.
The pavilion offers to the visitors this bike track as an symbol for the danish way of life--go green, ride your bike!

Here in the United States, riding is mostly just an exercise and sport. Not many people actually ride their bikes to school or work. Things are different in Denmark. My friend who studied abroad in Denmark last year told me that many people in Denmark ride their bikes as transportation.

Here is a video:
http://www.archdaily.com/69212/learning-from-copenhagen/

This is a perfect example of bike riding changing the city. In Copenhagen, people ride their bikes everywhere and even uses cargo bikes to take children to places.
Ride your bike--this is something everybody can do to help reduce pollution and CO2 emission.Why not exercise while you go to work and help the city go green at the same time?!

So why doesn't people here in the States do this?
The most important reason is that there is not a good enough system for bikes--roads, and instructions. Only when there is separate bike lines for bikes only,and everybody learns about rules of riding a bike on street, people will then feel comfortable and safe to ride their bikes to places.
If we have the bike line, if we show people this can really be done, if we teach kids to bike since kindergarten, this simple step can really change life.

What can architects do? They can play a huge role in this change. Architect can help design better roads and help figure out how to use structures on street to help riders feel safe. Architects can also build nice bike parks and rest stations for riders to help complete this riding system.