Hmmm. Spent a year cycling around Edinburgh some years ago and most days involved traversing the city at least twice. I really enjoyed it – especially the network of old railway lines / canals. And I honestly thought the cars and buses were, on the whole, quite bike-aware.
Sunderland though 😯 Up until very recently, bikes just didn’t go on the roads. There’d be the odd old chap off to fish off the pier with rod and baitbox on the rack, always on the pavement.
The lack of bikes meant that absolutely no-one knew what to do when they encountered one on the roads – they literally just tried to drive through you. It’s slowly getting better with all the brand new road bikes wibbling about all over the place, but I still drive to work, after several near misses in a row, a few years back….
