Perspective
London Bike Boom Risks Becoming a Victim of Its Own Success
Ridership in the British capital is up 20% from pre-pandemic levels. With so many bikes around, the potential backlash from everyone else is becoming very real.
For 12 hours a day, London’s busy Bank junction is closed to cars, trucks and taxis, leaving only cyclists and buses. Even in the January cold, riders fill the street.
Photographer: Tom Skipp/BloombergSign up here for the CityLab Daily newsletter.
It’s a familiar concept to any player of Sim City: When you build a road in your virtual town, voilà, new cars appear. Ride London’s newest cycle route, running four miles from Greenwich to London Bridge, and you’ll see this phenomenon in real life, only with bicycles. As new segments of those bike lanes fall into place, cyclists appear.