Later this year, the Finnish city of Lahti plans to roll out a new bike-sharing program. But before that happens, the city is experimenting with something that doesn’t exist anywhere else in the world: a public ski-sharing program.
The city has been expanding bike lanes and pedestrian paths and testing new ways to nudge more people to walk and bike—such as a personal carbon-trading app that tracks how people move around the city, rewarding commuters with virtual coins when they choose to walk or bike instead of driving. (The coins, in turn, can be used to buy tickets on the city’s fleet of low-emissions buses, among other things.) Electric vehicle adoption is growing. An alternative-fuel pilot uses local brewery and bakery waste to make biofuel.
This winter has been snowy, and even though the city clears snow from bike paths, skiing might be an easier way to get around at times. If the program proves to be popular, Huttenen says that the city may bring it back in future winters. But it may not always work. “Climate change is affecting the winters in the south of Finland,” she says. As it warms up, the area—known for its cross-country skiing—is getting more rain than snow.