London is a city made for cycling. There are few hills of any consequence, there are cycle paths everywhere and, thanks to the congestion charge on visiting motorists, which helped reduce traffic clogging the heart of the capital, it’s a little bit safer these days to get around on a bicycle.

The city is awash with bikes. They stand chained in ranks outside Tube and railway stations, and hang in heavy locks on railings in streets of terraced houses. The roads at rush hour are filled with quiet figures, slipping past like wraiths, red LED lights blinking from under saddles, chains whirring, tyres thrumming …

There are bike shops everywhere, and business will no doubt remain robust, especially if the recession drives people away from their cars and onto two, human-stoked wheels.

A friend of mine cycles 54km each way to his office and back every day, Surrey to Canary Wharf, rain or shine. Much of his route is through greenbelt – parks and towpaths along the river – and his commute, he says, is “like meditating”.

Bike culture is well and thriving throughout Britain, thanks in no small part to an organisation called Sustrans which has fought a grinding campaign to a) expand the country’s network of cycle paths and b) have cyclists recognised as proper human beings made of fragile tissue and bone.

The upshot is a carborne culture that is starting to look out for cyclists, at least some of the time. It’s a long way from perfect. People still die under the wheels of various taxis, buses, delivery vans and “Chelsea Tractors” – that’s a phat 4×4 or “mommywagon”. A decade ago, when I lived in London, a bus driver ran down a cyclist who flipped him the bird in heavy traffic (he got off on a technicality, apparently).

Still, it is one of the better ways to get around. If you’re visiting, hire a bike for day touring around London’s sites, or hop on a “dikwiel” with Fat Tire Bike Tours. And away from the towns, you have, thanks to Sustrans, 19 000km of cycle paths to get lost on. Couple bike touring with a hired canal narrowboat, and you have the makings of a spectacular holiday.

Related posts:

1. Five things that make Britain great
2. What’s so great about Britain? 1: The London Underground
3. What’s so great about Britain? 5: The Thames
4. What’s so great about Britain? 4: Robust eccentricity
5. Around the world by electric bicycle