Perfectly safe! I can even ride no-hands for nearly six seconds.

My Brompton isn’t new any more - I’ve been riding it for a year and a half. It had a service at 100 miles, a full strip down service at one year, and various other checkups and fixes. I’ve already broken an elbow on it last winter, and wiped out on ice this winter. Bromptons are fun, fact. (-:

Smoothness, now that’s one I wasn’t aware of!

I don’t dress like a Tour de France rider (I wear my office clothes) but I do sling on a high vis vest. Not because cycling is dangerous per se, but because roads are dangerous. I also wear that vest when walking after dark, because pedestrians aren’t a whole lot safer from traffic.

The Netherlands has the issue nailed, of course. If cycles and motor vehicles are kept apart, they don’t get in each others’ way. This takes political willpower, though, and Amsterdam had to sustain a number of child deaths (both pedestrian and cyclist) before there was enough of that.

The Netherlands is proof that it is possible to drag a country from a nightmare dystopia of cars, car parks and danger. Their cycling revolution came much later than most people think.

Cycling is more dangerous in the UK than in the Netherlands, that’s indisputable. It isn’t categorically unsafe to cycle, though.

Sure, PPE makes life safer if you have to cycle in traffic, but that’s no reason to swear off it. The chances of being killed on the road are still much less than the chances of being killed by a sedentary lifestyle.

As for aggression from other road users, I suspect that’s a side effect of having a smaller number of cyclists, which is in turn a side effect of our poor infrastructure. As more people decide it’s too dangerous, a greater proportion of those who continue to cycle are foolhardy and aggressive. This leads to a disproportionate amount of negative interactions with other road users.

To get better infrastructure, we need to demand it, and be seen to use what’s already there. We can’t just wait for it to happen. Hiding away in cars or on mass transit demonstrates to planners only that we prefer not to cycle. It’s also a good way to become less fit.