An intriguing vignette from the New York Times on the booming bicycle culture in London.
Bikes have lately come to stand for a certain idea that London
has developed of itself; in fact, velophilia is about as close as
the city currently comes to a political philosophy.
At the center of this minor revolution is London's mayor, Boris Johnson, a tousle-haired toff with a calculated, buffoonish air and an ideological mountain bike. Johnson is a haphazard sort of libertarian. His stated hero is Larry Vaughn, fictional mayor of Amity, in the movie "Jaws." Vaughn, Johnson has noted appreciatively, was not even moved to political intervention when his citizens were being eaten by a giant fish. London's mayor likewise believes in keeping as far as possible from most of the chaotic forward motion of Europe's largest metropolis. He is entirely relaxed about immigration and couldn't care less about bankers' bonuses; he is blithely unconcerned about planning laws and more than laissez-faire about any party line. His zealotry is reserved for pedal power. If you asked any Londoner to describe the sum total of visible changes made to the city in the nearly three years of Johnson's tenure, a single phrase would dominate: Boris Bikes.
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