After 6 years in Amsterdam, I am positively convinced that bicycles are the superior commuter means of transportation but, let's face it, London is simply not made for bikes. Here they are a serious hazard for unsuspecting pedestrians and a major deterrent for city buses. Mountain bike yobs whizzing down crowded sidewalks or a single leisurely cyclist in the bus lane keeping down a string of full buses -- those are familiar daily sights for every Londoner.
The recent London Skyride - on top of creating a horrid traffic snarl-up in Central London - cost the taxpayer 62 pounds a biker! These days that money can fly you to Spain and back.
The Anglo-Saxon fear of central planning has left London with a random sprinkling of cycle lanes and hardly any bicycle racks. With the worst air quality in Western Europe this city is dangerous for cycling commuters just as well. I really feel sorry for those foreign tourists who get duped into hiring a bike for a pleasure ride in London. Watching them trying to navigate through the relentlessly heavy traffic squeezed into a medieval labyrinth of Victorians streets, theirs must be a nightmarish experience.
You won't find me concurring with the Daily Mail columnists very often, but this time I have to take their side: ban bicycles in London!
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