[snip]
>> Goodness gracious. All this is very un-British. I live, and ride
>> my
>> bicycle in London, which seems to be the far-away land that you
>> are
>> talking about. London's a pretty good city to ride a bicycle in,
>> no
>> need for new laws or conventions.
>Oh, c'mon. The article was written by a Briton about Great Britain.
As, indeed, was my previous e-mail. As indeed is this one. I can
look out of my window, right here, at actual London traffic.
>I've said your driving laws are very good
Thankyou. I missed that posting, I guess. My apologies. What is it
about our laws that impresses you? Are we unique, or do other places
have similar laws?
> and your new laws
>restricting traffic into London are very encouraging,
Well, I have to admit that we haven't quite reached perfection yet.
Oxford Street, for example, from which private cars were already
banned before the congestion charge, has obviously - all too
obviously - not had its congestion reduced at all, because all those
buses, taxis, and delivery vehicles still clog it up. The "City"
part of London probably benefited more from the "ring of steel" anti
terrorism precautions which were introduced somewhat before the
congestion charges reduced motorised traffic still further.
>but I trust the
>writer's statement that cyclists still live under the law of the
>jungle in London to be right.
Hmm. As one who lives here, and cycles here, I would say that is
unwise. Cycling is safe enough here that, if you do choose to live
by the law of the jungle, your mean free path between collisions
might be long enough for you to get away with it, but it's still not
a good idea.
>>Either London is like Amsterdam, or it's not a welcoming place for
>cyclists.
Now you are just being silly. Cambridge is the British city which
has more cycling than Amsterdam, but I think that London is a better
city to cycle in than Cambridge. Of course, London has a good enough
public trans****t system for really the only reason to ride a bike in
London to be because it is fun. People travel thousands of miles to
come and ride on our buses, and our taxis, and their drivers, really
are wonderful. A London taxi can carry a bike, too, in case of
emergency.
London is rather bigger than Amsterdam. London was the largest city
in the world when I was growing up, although other ciries have long
since overtaken it. Amsterdam is such a dinky little town that you
can **walk** from the center of town - the main train station - to
the Ring Road, their beltway, in an hour.
>How many people ride bike in London?
The should be new annual figures out any time now - watch for a press
release from Trans****t for London on their web site www.tfl.gov.uk.
Last years figures estimate 480 000 journeys a day. I would guess
that most people take around two journeys a day, rather than getting
on the train with their bike to come home again. Whether this
includes journeys to a train station, I don't know. Most London
statistics count only the "main leg" of a journey, so riding to the
station to catch a train might not be counted
>Give me a percentage to
>show.
About 1.5% averaged over all London. Around 7% in Central London
(roughly the congestion charge zone). The south western part of
London seems to have a higher rate of cycling than average, nobody
knows why. London is tending now to base its statistics on the
automatic bike counters on the TLRN (Trunk London Road Network)
Because of the nature of the TLRN this might lead to some
undercounting in Outer London.
>Anyway, I'd rather ride a bike in London than in places where still
>the drivers ignore any civilized rules of the road. In America we
>have
>to tame the beast first. ;)
Having ridden many miles on both sides of th Altlantic, I would say
that there is not much in it, though there are, of course, many
places in the USA where I have not ridden (Chicago, for example).
Civilized or not - that might depend on your definition of civilized,
which doesn't always seem to be the same as everyone's on this
newsgroup - I would say that there always are rules, and when you
ride or bike, or are anywhere among other people, it's advisable to
know what those rules are.
>I read the reviews of the book, but I'm sure even bullfighting can
>be
>done in a safe way if you know the tricks of the trade
[snip]
The moral of which, I take it, is to know the tricks of the trade.
Buy a copy of "Effective Cycling"
Jeremy Parker
|
