14 million people ready to get on their bikes says British Cycling

Well yes, people should be able to choose to use their car, or their bike. But as you have shown, car use is condoned even to the extent that cars make people are too scared to exercise their choice - for many it's just too dangerous on a bike.
We'll have got there when the choice whether or not to use a bike is not dictated by fear of death or injury.

The problem with electric cars is congestion plus the environmental cost of ownership.

I find it very hard to believe that a 20 minute tube journey equates to a 35-40 cycle ride for a fit person.
I take it both ends are right by the stations.

hirsute wrote:

The problem with electric cars is congestion plus the environmental cost of ownership. I find it very hard to believe that a 20 minute tube journey equates to a 35-40 cycle ride for a fit person. I take it both ends are right by the stations.

And the massive amount of pollution from tyre wear and brake pads, which as I recall,  is actually bigger than the pollution caused by the engine.

We need a new cycling bingo card for idiots like you.  I'm surprised you didn't mention that you're a plumber who regularly has to deliver fridges and is registered disabled so you can't ride a bike.  Just using the phrase "MSM" marks you as a moron - presumably preferring Karen from Facebook as your news source.

Electric cars clog up the roads and need the same amount of storage as ICE cars - or have you somehow figured out how to store all these electric cars in central London which you know so well? Electric cars don't produce as much carbon emissions at point of use, but still produce other pollution such as brake dust.  And we don't yet have an infrastructure which allows many to be charged in the roadside, unless you think investing in that infrastructure is somehow different.

Why is riding a bike more stressful than getting the tube? I'd find the tube pretty stressful at the moment.  I've ridden a bike in London for many years - a 6 mile each way commute takes about 30 mins at a pace which doesn't require a shower at the other destination.  Quite an expensive bike paid for itself within a year so a financial no brainer for a basic bike.

If your wife really is fit, she would be much quicker on a bike than in the tube.  I suspect you've forgotten to take into account 30-60 mins of walking to and from the tube station at each end.  Very few people are so seriously disabled that they can't cycle a few miles with the right infrastructure and, with the right infrastructure, the roads would be much more free for those who genuinely have no option but to drive.

The point of investing in cycling infrastructure is to take away the fear factor for the more nervous.  Make it so you would be happy with your 12 year old riding it and you have succeeded.

Outside of London, in the small towns and cities where most of us live, cycling  infrastructure makes even more sense.  Distances travelled are smaller for most and many areas are even more congested because there are no viable alternatives to a private car.

No one is saying it will be compulsory - you're just being ridiculous. If you are seriously telling us that we can't invest in giving people a safe, cheap and practical option to travel then you are the fascist, not those of who who would like to see the public having a real choice.

I can't think of anywhere I'd rather not be than the Tube. 
 

if you could go back to say 1900, and had the choice would you choose the local transport world we ideologues are describing, or the one we've got?

It was a golden few weeks. As has been said all back to normal now. Where people are going during the week I don't know though. Most aren't working but the roads are vastly more busy now.

I wouldn't say it was back to school summer holiday level yet, though I've not done the morning bit for a while.

I can only comment on my neck of the woods of course...

It was quiet out there for a while.

A lot more transit type vans.
I know construction folk are definitely back, then there are people going for a drive.

Lukas wrote:

Let me be the first to comment. In a year's time modal share will be back to the usual 1 - 2 % (cycling), all the 'pop - up' cycle lanes will have been dismantled, UK cities and towns will once more exceed all pollution and congestion levels. Just saying. 

I sometimes hate how cynical I've become, but I think you're right.

We've had all the "golden age of cycling" rhetoric, the many, many announcements of massive improvements to roads, the many, many commitments to increase cycling and yet precious little changes.  If there is one thing you can depend on the current shower of a so-called government for, it's utter incompetence, from Boris Bloodhands down, so I would be surprised and shocked if this lot got it right.

Change is hard but the arguments for it are unanswerable.

Unless we believe what we're fighting for is possible, we may as well give up.