In London, bicycles are gaining ground as a mode of transportation. And as in New York, the uptick in cyclists is exposing some uncomfortable divisions, stereotypes, and backlash.
If there is a transportation sea change happening here -- and it looks like there might be -- it is not going to come without some angst. Bike riders, drivers, and pedestrians are all going to have to adjust both their attitudes and their behavior.
According to the blog Cyclists in the City (that's "The City," as in London's version of Wall Street), the latest figures from London's transportation department show a huge boom in the number of two-wheeled commuters. This runs counter to the constant hectoring of people like high-profile journalist Jeremy Clarkson, who has made sport of ridiculing people who don't burn fossil fuels to get where they're going, and who recently referred to cycling in The Sunday Times of London (paywall) as "a frontline propaganda weapon in the war on capitalism."
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