In praise of ... Boris's bikes

The enthusiasm with which London has taken to Boris's bikes – the millionth ride has been clocked up in 10 weeks – has evoked inevitable comparisons to Paris's Vélibs. Ours are supposed to be heavier, nicer to ride, more stylish, more difficult to steal (and less incentive to steal with the deposit scheme) and they don't have a basket. Theirs are about wandering and shopping as well as commuting – they call it Vélibération. Ours are about getting somewhere in under half an hour, after which time it becomes more expensive. Much has been made of the fact that only five bikes have been stolen, as opposed to 8,000 of Paris's 20,600 bikes, 16,000 of which have been vandalised and had to be replaced. The London scheme is still a baby in comparison and the mayor has been cautious about extending it. We will see what happens when there are more docking stations and it becomes a source of local pride to nick them. Before the bike scheme, cycling around Paris was considered a marginal activity, to be undertaken only by the reckless, rather like roller-skating behind buses. London already had a firmly established cycling culture. Both schemes, however, are changing the way we use big cities. Without turning the clock back to 1904, when 20% of journeys were made by bicycle, London is being gradually liberated from the tyranny of the combustion engine. Copenhagen or Amsterdam are already well on the way – more bikes means both quicker journeys and more pedestrians.