Now we have spent 3 weeks in Denmark, so we noticed some differences between Slovenia and Denmark. First off all, they use and provide a lot of green energy. There are many windmills around the whole country. I also noticed they try to use as little electricity as possible, you can see that in shopping malls, schools and even on roads.
Public lighting is not used like in Slovenia, they use as little light as they can and it’s working. Instead of having light poles on both sides of the road, they have one light in the middle of the road, and they are more spread out. Even walkways are not that lit.
Next thing that interested me were the traffic lights. They switch very fast, that’s what got me thinking. First week when our teachers were with us, we had a rented car and whenever there was an empty road, the traffic lights changed green, right before we were in front of the crossroad. I think the traffic lights have sensors in them so they can switch to green if there’s only one car on the way. In that way they reduce possible traffic jams and because the car doesn’t stop, it reduces CO2 emissions. I asked some of the locals if they knew about it, but none of them could confirm this was real. They just told me that in Copenhagen they have smart traffic lights, connected to some antennas and computers to reduce traffic jams and to help some public transports to be on time. I guess I will not find out about this for now. In some areas of Sønderborg there are some new modern traffic lights, and they have LED lights that are solar powered.
Good roads are everywhere. Their roads are smooth and they look brand new. Quite a difference between Slovenia and Denmark. When we talked to a Danish teacher about the roads, he told us when the Germans worked on a road, that they made it 2 years before the plan, because they were so fast. That didn’t explain much, but I at least got an idea. In Denmark they also have a very high fine, if they overload goods on a vehicle. So the roads don’t get used that much.
Streets are very clean, and they don`t have so many trash cans. Sometimes you need to walk more than 2 kilometres before you can find a trash can. In some bigger cities in Slovenia, trash cans are everywhere. That also requires more work for trash man. Later we noticed that they have very dirty cars inside, full of empty energy drink cans, food packaging and ext., but mostly in student’s cars. I think in Slovenia it`s uncommon to have that much trash in cars.
