“In London cyclists now outnumber cars in the City by 2 to 1. Paris, where they now outnumber motorists across the whole city, is catching up with Europe’s traditional bike capitals, Amsterdam & Copenhagen…In Copenhagen, bikes account for almost half of commuter trips to work/school.” @economist.com

April 08, 2026 - 05:37 UTC

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As a Dutch person … revolutionize?? Kids learn to ride bikes right after they can walk. Kids bike to school.

This is the new(ish) trend in Amsterdam;
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Great 🫶💙
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read today that 62% of commuting trips in Copenhagen done by bike. Phenomenal.
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Driving in London was always purgatory. I learned to drive in a Mini, driving round Shepherd's Bush. I commuted for years across london on a bike. The bike was just.. better. In every way.
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Just a friendly reminder:
The City of London ≠ London

The City of London, which indeed has impressive cycling stats, is a square mile business district in London with few residents.

See modal shares for journeys in *all* of London below (Source: TFL)
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Sadly in Newcastle, cars outnumber bikes by about 200:1 😢
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Such great news. But backlash is coming to Paris until there is a cultural change towards more respectful cycling. Right now it is chaos.
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"backlash is coming" does not account for the fact that people have been saying that for months and then the pro-cycling candidate was elected by a ridiculous margin
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In the U.S., cars are called “freedom bikes.”
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Electric bikes can take a bit of the grind out of hilly routes
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My town is seemingly a million cars and ten bikes. I feel very different on the bike commute, people at work think I'm crazy for riding
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Pretty sure this counts as an EV 🙂
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E-bikes = mopeds
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This is fantastic. I wish my city was bike-friendly, instead of hostile.
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And much of the rest of travel is public transport: 26.1 million trips a day on London public transport.
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Shame it became so shit and prohibitively expensive though.
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And in Ontario, many planned new bike lanes have been made illegal.
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The most recent non paywalled data I could find is here
content.tfl.gov.uk/travel-in-london-2025-consolidated-estimates-of-total-travel-and-mode-shares-acc.pdf

The data are for 2024, and show cycling with a small % of total trips
(see fig one on page 6 of the PDF)

Table 4 shows cycling growing from about 2% in 2000 to about 4% in 2024
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And in Portugal, marred by right wing obscurantism governance, is dialling down on bike lanes in Lisbon and other right wing governed cities
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I believe that although every product/tech has tradeoffs (pollution, etc), the bicycle may represent the highest benefit-cost ratio of anything ever invented
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That’’s great. Do both.
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👍
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'Forget this, forget that,' suggest the articles. Well, you know what? Don't forget anything: improve safe bike networks in cities, continue with electric cars, photovoltaic and wind power, and ensure buildings are properly insulated.
I believe no single recipe will work alone.
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Told by a guy who drives an electric car and often cycles from home to work.
(Yes, me!)
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In Paris the cyclists seems to think they have priority over pedestrians at zebra crossings, I was on a Green Man and almost got taken out, they cycle faster than the cars drive too.
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I'd like to see the US in the category but bike lanes are sporadic motorists do not pay attention , I bike in upstate NY, winter is tough , people yell out of car windows at me , america under trump sucks
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Fun fact: you can do cycling without the evil companies depicted.
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wish I lived somewhere flat
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I live(d) in a very hilly area. Biked every day. Flat and open isn’t always fun either; the wind and rain can be brutal.
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Yea right. No.
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👏 👏 👏 👏
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@nathansmithmanley.bsky.social you may have read this already. 😊
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Yeah. I wish they'd stay off the Tarka Trail. They scare the dogs.
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And the US is damn near last I bet. If not the world then at least compared to developed countries.
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I would say revolutionising transport in cities and/or over short distances. How many folks are willing to travel from, say, Bristol to Snowdonia on a bicycle? I would say probably not very many. Plenty of EV drivers wanting to visit the area would consider this though.
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I don't like the way news articles try and make it seem as if the City of London is somehow representative of the city of London when it couldn't be further from the truth. Yes it's an important figure, but it still sounds misleading.
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Love it. Cycling in Paris is superb, we do it all year round.
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Yet try and book a train with a bike. You have to do it months in advance. Trains only take 6 bikes at a time.

We just booked the last places from Frankfurt to Stutghart for late June.
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Yes, that's really a problem. On regional trains you can take your bike. Sometimes they are to packed. So it may be better to check out before you go.
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One approach, originally from Japan, I think, is to "Rinko" your bike. With a few optimizations, you can break down a regular bike in short order and stuff it into a bag for train travel. www.rossmancycles.com/rinko
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At the level of mass commute cycling in busy urban centres it doesn't make sense to take a bike on the train, terrible use of space if tens of thousands of folk try and do it. Hence the model of cycling to the station, hiring at the other end.
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EVs are only being produced, to prop up the car industry, and their tyres are just as polluting as other cars.
Which is 1000 times worse than car exhaust.
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@tauntonareacyccam.bsky.social It's still not too late.
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Don't forget about the health benefits. Improving circulation and heart function is an excellent byproduct! People tend to sit and do nothing.
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Oh yes?. Try it onn a wet and windy day.
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Those are the best days to cycle. Feeling the wind on your face and maybe getting a bit damp beats sitting in a traffic jam or standing on a packed tube carriage that smells of wet dog
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Wind is no problem but a challenge, it makes you strong. Cold is just a matter of clothing. From personal experience I can say it rains on maximum 5% of my daily trips. On those days I use an alternative for my bike, because I hate rain.
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The cycling superhigways in London are the game changer. Safe and segregated from car traffic
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London has similar number of rainy days to Sydney. Also very rarely too cold to cycle on London. As the Scots say no such as bad weather just wrong clothes.
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Tried it. Bicycles still work in wet and windy weather.
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Notoriously sunny and wind free Copenhagen/Amsterdam. Just beautiful sunshine all year round
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Please don't forget EVs (especially the micro ones) not everyone can ride a bike. I have a hip injury that means I can't use a bike of any kind.
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I'd certainly hope your public transport system is fully accessible. If not, focus should go towards that, still not EVs
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My little muni has been doing pretty good on bike lanes (though we'll see what happens after the next election) - nowhere near Paris, but pretty good.

However, on the flipside they're removing dedicated car share parking to add EV charging stations, impacting people's ability to go car-free.
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