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BREAKING THE RULES Whether it be using public transport, naming your child or parking your car, Denmark has a few rules worth knowing about. Rules which are normally diligently observed as a result of the hefty fines and penalty fees incurred if broken.
PHOTOGRAPHS KERI BLOOMFIELD / ISTOCK PHOTO
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I RECEIVED MY first afgift (a penalty fee) a few weeks ago: a 695 DKK penalty for forgetting to set my P-skive (a type of parking display clock) in the car. A spontaneous trip to the supermarket in the car for a free bolle at Føtex, quickly became one of the most expensive bread rolls my daughter will ever eat in her life (and she’s only three). If you’ve experienced something similar, you’ll know my pain. But on the positive, because it’s important to look on the positive, Bilingual Backpack Baby (BBB) thought the bolle “smagte meget godt” (tasted very good). Aside from the financial damage, it’s never a great feeling being fined or told off for breaking a rule – especially when you’re unaware of them. So, let me help you avoid this by sharing some of the rules definitely worth knowing about if you are living in Denmark.
JAYWALKING The art of crossing the road when it’s showing a red pedestrian light is known as jaywalking and is a common sight around the world. But not in Denmark. It was one of the
NOVEMBER 2018 - WWW.THE-INTL.COM
TEXT KERI BLOOMFIELD
most curious sights I remember when I first moved to Denmark: people standing at a crossing patiently waiting for the green man, when there was no traffic for miles. But with the risk of receiving a 700 DKK fine, and quite possibly having a bike lodged somewhere you rather it wasn’t, it slowly began to make sense why people wait without fail, for the green man. Three years later and I too now diligently stand waiting for the green man.
PUBLIC TRANSPORT Denmark has an open metro and train system. Meaning they trust you to buy a ticket before you get on public transport. No one will check it when you board the train. Instead, spot checks are carried out and if you are caught traveling without a ticket then you run the risk of receiving a fare evasion ticket of around 750 DKK. The penalties are high to keep the incentive high to follow the rules. The Metro Service in Copenhagen had over 63 million passengers last year and only 0.1 per cent received fines for fare evasion.
The downside is, should you innocently make an error, such as what often happens to visitors or new residents, it will prove nearly impossible to explain or justify your way out of the fine. A recent visitor to Copenhagen, Nikki Johnson, learnt this lesson the hard way. Having paid for two tickets she mistakenly took only one ticket and a receipt from the ticket machine, leaving the second ticket behind. An honest mistake for which she had to pay a 700 DKK fee for, even after providing bank transaction statements proving she had paid the correct amount. And she’s not alone, with many others having experienced similar situations. If you’re a regular user of public transport, research their rules. Including if they have any glemt kort systems, which is something DSB offers that protects you if you forget your travel card.
CYCLING With the high volume of cyclists in Denmark it probably