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by FormFollowsFunc 1352 days ago
You could get away without a car in London because the public transport is good. Outside of London it isn’t great, depends on where you are - you will probably need a car. London is not a great place for cycling. It’s very congested. I got knocked off my bike every year there. Maybe not as bad as the US but the UK is still a very car centric country.
3 comments
mcv 1352 days ago
When I visited London a couple of years ago, I noticed a couple of very questionable bike paths that were short, appeared out of nowhere, and disappeared into nowhere. Arguably worse than no bike path at all.

Public transport was great, though.

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thorin 1352 days ago
It depends what you mean by "without a car". I live on the edge of a medium sized city in the UK and could manage without a car for getting the kids to school, shopping and I'm still working at home. In practice, I might need to go to work sometimes and my hobbies require a car so I have one.

When saying the UK isn't a place for grownups ( and it certainly isn't run by grownups at the moment ). I'd place it somewhere between American and Northern Europe in terms of the sensible rating! I like American too, but agree with some of the shortcomings mentioned above.

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TrueGeek 1352 days ago
We came over in July to try it out. We stayed in Kent and living car free wasn't a problem at all. We both work from home so that wasn't a problem. I brought my bike and riding around Kent was incredible. Much nicer then back home. I even went out with the local bike club and they all had wonderful things to say about the area.

Now, going in London itself - although it took less then an hour by high speed train - wasn't as much fun by bicycle at all. The cars were crazy and there were stop lights everywhere so it took much longer to get anywhere.

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thorin 1351 days ago
You have to be a special kind of biker to enjoy cycling in London. A friend cycled across London twice a day every day but I'm not sure I'd want to do that. Public transport is good so you can walk or take the tube/bus.
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martopix 1352 days ago
You should get away without a car in London. :)
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