He’s right: recently in Amsterdam I was charmed (and shamed, on London’s behalf) by the way that bikes, pedestrians and motor vehicles weave a courteous ballet around one another. Some 63 per cent of the city’s citizens use their bike daily, nearly half the centre’s traffic is pedalled, and accidents are few. But hardly any of those bikes in sight are racing-machines: they’re upright models whose riders can easily see ahead and around them, or pause to appreciate some tulips. Many tow trailers containing children, shopping, or dogs; some are tricycles with a brace of babies on the back. It works fine. And most of them are certainly not hitting 12mph in the busy streets.