Cycling in London works for me.. (Bicycles (private))

Member Name: JonathanS

Product:	Bicycles (private)
Date:	03/05/01 (83 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: cheap, healthy, fast

Disadvantages: not enough cycle lanes

I just thought I should give a counter view to the other opinion. I've
been cycling in London for a few years now, and am currently commuting from Clapham to Shoreditch (about 6 miles) most days. And maybe
I'm just lucky and/or charmed, but I've only ever had one incident that
could be called an accident, and that caused more damage to the
car than to me.

I think that if you take sensible precautions, wear high visibility
clothing, always use lights at night, obey standard traffic laws (which
oh so many cyclists seem to disregard) and just keep your eyes open, then cycling can be perfectly safe. You just have to always assume that cars havn't seen you and behave accordingly. Seeing the way some cyclists behave, I'm not surprised there are a lot of accidents and that other road users find them a nuisance. But that doesn't mean cycling should be entirely discounted. It's cheap, as environmentally friendly
as you can get, a good form of excercise, healthy (as long as you
wear a smog-mask!) and generally faster than any way of getting
around. And it can be safe if you're careful.

And maybe the more people that decide cycling is a good way of getting about, the more likely we are to get decent cycle lanes, as in other countries.

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