I haven't read all of this but glancing through I'm with Baldric. Bicycles are the scourge of the modern age. The worst place I have been where they spoiled my enjoyment was Amsterdam. You see these pretty pictures of the iron bridges over the canals. Try and cross one. Every last one has bicycles ten deep chained to the ironwork. So you have to walk in the road. Then guess what - you take your life in your hands because the road is packed with bicycles heading in both directions (on the same side of the road) with no heed for pedestrians. The place is an absolute nightmare. Adjacent to Amsterdam Central railway station is a gigantic cycle park. It must hold tens of thousands of bicycles piled on top of each other. God knows how they extract them when required. The place is an absolute nightmare and a disgrace.
In London tens of millions of pounds have been spent creating "cycle superhighways". The congestion cause during their construction (which is still ongoing) is immense and now they are built the congestion continues as road space for motorists (heavily taxed for the privilege of running their vehicles) is considerably reduced. That’s bad enough but recent surveys show that they are scarcely used and a large chunk on the carriageway remains off limits to normal ftaffic but is devoid of any bicycles.
In recent years large areas of the Surrey Hills have been closed to traffic three or four times a year so that cycle races can progress through them. The residents are effectively confined to barracks for the day, being unable even to get out to get the Sunday papers unless they are fortunate enough to live within walking distance of the newsagents. This is particularly galling and unnecessary because there has always been a perfectly good cycle track at Herne Hill and since 2012 there has been an Olympic standard track where cyclists can race each other round and round in circles (possibly paced by a postman on a moped if that is their wont) without denying anybody the opportunity to get their copy of the Sunday Telegraph.
If anybody wants to use a bicycle to boost their health they should purchase these:.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/slp/bike-rollers/dunry2mzgbdh9y5?tag=askcomdelta-20
They could then follow their somewhat strange pursuit in the comfort of their own home without running the risk of being slain by a 40 ton artic as they make their way up its nearside as it is turning left and without inhaling the noxious fumes that many of them find so unpleasant. But most of all they won’t have to have huge swathes of roadspace reserved for them which they seem so reluctant to use and it will keep them away from vulnerable pedestrians with whom they seem to keen to share the pavement.