public bikes

Red double-decker buses and black cabs have long been iconic symbols of London, but Britain's capital may soon become just as famous for its distinctive blue and silver rental bicycles.

As its public transit system struggles to cope with growing passenger loads, London is starting to embrace cycling. This year it launched a new bicycle-sharing system that allows residents to rent a bicycle from hundreds of locations in central London.

Communal bike hire is great - but do we have to help advertise a bank? James May's not so sure.

This column, as I've tried to make perfectly clear in the past, is pro-bicycle and pro-cycling. I love a bicycle and I haven't been without at least one since I was three years old.

That's why I don't like being lectured about cycling by sanctimonious reformers who bought one last week and imagine the rest of us haven't discovered them yet.