You are reading a single comment by @ad441 and its replies.
Click here to read the full conversation.
London Fixed Gear and Single-Speed is a community of predominantly fixed gear and single-speed cyclists in and around London, UK.
This site is supported almost exclusively by donations. Please consider donating a small amount regularly.
@ad441
I really don't like to get drawn into these kind of discussions/arguments, but as someone who does have experience of cycling in Holland, I can very confidently say I would happily let my child cycle to school in Holland, whereas I can't imagine a point where I'd ever let her do that in the UK, no matter how much training she had. While drivers may not love cyclists in those countries, there is nothing like the level of anger and impatience towards cyclists that many UK drivers have.
In the end I'd be happy to sacrifice my freedom to charge around town at high speed if it meant that a greater proportion of the population could use bikes just to get around, even if that means they're slow and chaotic.
I do agree that most of our roads aren't suited to having segregated cycle lanes.
Personally I think European style liability laws would do far more good than anything else, but you only have to look at any online discussion of those to see we're never going to get them. This country's problem seems to be more to do with our contempt for anyone more vulnerable than ourselves and I can't see that changing.