I'm a convert to the cycle. Little did I realise that while I was feretting around underground, jamming my poor nostrils into the un-deoderised armpits of strangers, above ground cyclists were happily weaving among the buses and taxi's and winning the race. So now I've joined them. It takes less than half an hour from home to school (downhill-ish) and on the way back the slope is compensated for by the lack of traffic (17 minutes door to door the other night). And I have a set of flashing halogen lights that make me viewable on google earth. The benefits are threefold: no tube fare everyday; arriving at school with a 30 minutes blast of oxygen in my brain; and the acquisition of a modicum of fitness. Not to mention the sudden absence of armpits from my life. Best of all I now join the sanctimonious elite of bike riders who scowl angrily at the drivers of carbon burning steel monsters - in a city like L there is just no excuse, unless you're posh or famous, both of which are fair cause. Ah the sweet carbon-monoxide scent of the high moral ground :)