I’ve been cycling to work pretty much every day for six months now. For some reason I chose one of the coldest, darkest, windiest days of the winter to start and now we’re in a lovely warm stretch with long summer evenings so I’ve seen most things that London can throw at you. A few things I’ve noticed:

• It really doesn’t rain that much in London especially in the mornings
• There are some hilariously bad bits of ‘cycle path’ around the city which stop and start without any warning
• Pumping your tyres up makes a big difference
• The number of cyclists seems to increase almost every day — the Old Street ‘pelotons’ that build up just before 9am are now often 30–40 bikes strong
• There’s a lot still to do on safety — and it’s better to choose safe routes over more direct routes in a lot of cases
• Cycle theft is still a big problem — I’m very lucky that I can store my bike in a secure area at both ends of my commute. Hopefully things like this will help though.

Related articles

• How do you make Britain a better place for two wheels? Go Dutch (independent.co.uk)
• MPs get chance to back cycling revolution in landmark Commons debate (thetimes.co.uk)
• London Cycling Campaign calls protest ride in wake of Boris Bike death on Cycle Superhighway 2 (standard.co.uk)