The baffling world of Norwegian transport

I have lived in Norway for about 2 months now, and one of the first things that struck was the bizarre transport systems here. This has baffled me so much that I thought it deserved its own blog post.

Cycling

After cycling to work in London, I was pretty sure that nothing could phase me. I mean come on, London has a population almost double the size of the whole of Norway! Surely also, as a forward thinking Scandinavian country, they also have a fantastic cycle network?

Cycling through Oslo is perhaps the oddest thing. For a while there, you cycle along a wide cycle path by the side of the road, smugly passing long queues of traffic as you whizz along unmolested in your designated cycle lane. And then suddenly, the lane disappears and you must cycle on the pavement or else face certain death on a very busy motorway. You cycle along the pavement for a while, dodging pedestrians, before the pavement disappears and you again find yourself on the road. You then find that your road joins onto the tram line, with no kind of traffic light to inform you of whether a tram is on its way down the hill or not. For about 500 metres you cycle along the tram way, alternately looking anxiously over your shoulder as to whether a tram is coming up behind you, and then down to the perfectly wheel sized tram lines beneath your bike. It's certainly an exciting affair, cycling to university. Although I am rewarded with some far more splendid views than in London......

Norwegian cyclers themselves don't really seem to understand basic etiquette. Whilst in England, if a cyclist were to come along on the pavement, it would be met with some very English stony glares, and if you're very unlucky, some loud tutting. But in Norway it is perfectly legal and normal for the cyclists to go on the pavements. You could then be strolling along the pavement, minding your own business, when a cyclist would silently wheel up behind you and whisper "Unnskyld.... unnskyld..." As a pedestrian, you would hear a vague sound, perhaps the wind whistling through the trees, and as you casually turn to look behind you and jump out of your skin as you come face to face with a line of shy and polite spandex- clad Norwegians on bicycles. I can understand them cycling on pavements as the cycle lanes are so erratic, but I think I might have to start handing out bells. (Although the Norwegians, even if they had bells, would be far too shy to ring them.)

Road rules

One thing that I had to learn very quickly is Norway's bizarre traffic rules. And I'm not just talking about driving on the right hand side.

I'm still not entirely sure what the rules are with the traffic lights here, but there have been many times when the green man pops up and I happily begin to cross the road only to have a car begin to almost plough into me. Similarly, I have driven Per Kristian's car and the light has shown green for me to turn onto a junction, and I suddenly find myself with a swarm of pedestrians in front of the car. I'm not entirely sure who is in the right here, but in both scenarios I react with some well placed glares and an emphatic gesture to the green man. If someone could explain these bizarre situations to me, that would be greatly appreciated.

Another baffling road rule in Norway is that you must always give way to roads on the right, unless there is a sign that says you have the right of way. This is regardless of whether you are on the main road or not. Of course in England, if you are on the main road, you have priority over the smaller roads joining onto your road. Not so in Norway! Driving or cycling you must always keep an eye on the roads on the right, as cars will quite unashamedly speed on out onto your road, despite the fact that you were there first and your road is far bigger and busier.

Road works end up just as frustrating here!

T-Bane

And finally, we come to the T-bane. Oslo's T-bane system is actually extremely efficient. This metro system successfully links up many areas of the city, even reaching up to Holmekollen (Oslo's huge ski jump high up the side of a mountain) all the way down to the fjords. Your pass will even let you hop on the ferries that go to the numerous islands around the city, and you have easy access to lakes, forests and sea. The majority of the network is outside, which is far more pleasant than speeding along in darkness, and even for the small parts underground you will have mobile network. It's also very cheap, especially compared to the London tube network. A monthly pass for everywhere that you would normally need to go in Oslo is £39 for a student, and £70 for an adult (compared to the £120 a month for an adult travelling to zones 1 and 2 in London).

What then is baffling?

A couple of years ago, a company was hired to redesign all the ticket barriers in the T-bane. This huge project aimed to bring in similar barriers to those on the London tube, effectively preventing fare-dodgers. However, the company went bankrupt, and so ever since then every single barrier on the system is open, with nobody to check your tickets or see that you have a pass. You can literally stroll right on without a ticket! In the two months that I have lived here (and I use the T-bane for at least 2 hours a day as I live a long way from my job and the university) I have been checked once by ticket inspectors. The fine, if you are found to not have a ticket, is £80. If I was an adult, it would actually be more cost efficient to pay the fine every 5 weeks rather than buy a monthly pass.

(And yet of course, the Norwegians are far too polite and rule- abiding to even consider fare dodging. We cannot forget that their word for tax, skatt, also means treasure. To even hint at cheating the system would be met with stony disapproval. I hope I don't have my residence permit revoked now Norwegian patriotism police as a result of this blog post! ;) )