TopGear (a testosterone heavy but amusing car program here in the UK) staged a race across London feature four of their presenters using different modes of transport: car, public transport, bike, and speed boat up the Thames. Much to their dismay and my eternal delight, the guy on the bike took the day, and the car in fact came in last. The boat was second, but given that it was a super expensive speed boat and its success depended on both ends of the route being on the river, there are obvious scaling problems. It was a long route, so you’d need to be both fit and aggressive to match the cyclist’s performance, but the public transport option came quite close and is obviously accessible to most everyone.
Considering that London is totally not designed to support cycling, however, you have to wonder how much better it would be if there was genuine support for the use of bicycles.
Thanks to the Colchester Cycling mailing list for the tip that the race was gonna be aired.