Statistically speaking, cities that are hilly typically have a low ratio of cyclists riding around.  However, one city is changing that.  In Norway, Trondheim is the third largest city, and it is also known for having the highest number of people who ride bicycles as their main form of transportation.  According to the Trampe web site, this is possibly due to several reasons:

• Trondheim is a university city with 30,000 students, 90% of whom use their bicycles as their main transport.
• During the last 20 years, there has been a significant amount of money invested in bicycle roads network as well as bicycle transport infrastructure in Trondheim.
• Since the opening of theTrampe bicycle lift in 1993, it has pushed more than 220,000 cyclists up historically steep hills.

All of this begs the question:  Will this idea catch on in the United States in places such as California where some of the roadways are extremely steep?  Watch the following video to get a better idea of how this bicycle lift works.  Who knows, perhaps one day it will encourage more of us to get out there and pedal to where we have to go versus wasting gasoline!

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