As I headed for Denmark and southern Sweden recently, friends on either side of the bridge had hardly said hello before they warned me to be careful of the bicyclists. Although I have been visiting Copenhagen for years those first impressions, perhaps 15 years ago, of hosts of golden, leggy people pedalling gently along their bit of the pavement seem to have dissolved into a scary battle of nerves for anyone on their own feet.

Could I hop off the bus, with light luggage, fast enough to be across the cycle lane and on to the pavement in time to miss the continual oncoming surge? To the outsider eye there is no clearly demarcated safe space between the two. Pavements are shared. No succour is offered by signs or differentiated surfaces.

Denmark, the motherland of impeccable hard landscape and crisp finishes, has forgotten to offer its pedestrian minority any help, even modest clues towards where and how they can be safely accommodated alongside the relentless thrust of two-wheeled traffic.

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