True, but the normalization of cycling in a few select US cities is much more recent than the normalization of cycling across the northern European lowlands countries.
My understanding is that cycling became common when cities responded to the 1970s oil crises by dramatically increasing gas taxes (to reduce driving) and invested heavily in continuous cycling infrastructure.
Yeah, I was going to post the same thing. I see people in skirts riding their bikes in Chicago all the time. It is so normal I would never even give it a second thought.
I don't think the author has ever lived in a city, and is associating "Europe" with "city" instead of "city" and "city". (Oslo is kind of treacherous for cyclists anyway. Ride into one of the tram rails and you are likely to go down pretty hard.)
Just to flaunt my vanity, I thought I'd say that my family (father-side) comes from Trysil, the small town mentioned, where the KDE guys spend a week hacking each summer. It's a really beautiful place - desolate, with miles and miles of pine trees in every direction. I think the place has about 10.000 inhabitants in summer - although in winter it enjoys its status as the largest ski resort in Scandinavia. (My trip to eastern China this summer was paid with some of the cash my family earns from renting out real-estate to ski tourists).
I've never heard the story behind the KDE developer camp up there, but from years of personal experience it is a great place to go disconnect from everyday distractions. You can actually be alone up there, while still enjoying a top-notch standard of living.
This guy has obviously never been to Portland, Denver, or a host of other cities where bikes are absolutely normal modes of transportation.
Hell just as I wrote this two women (in skirts) biked past my window (Downtown Denver).