I read the 'Riding in Oxford and Moscow' thread with great interest.

Thought I'd offer another rather than interfere with that one.

I've been in York, England since July, and loving it. It's one of the UK's most cycling-friendly cities, and I feel it exemplifies the idea of the 'critical mass' - not the great big city centre ride/demonstrations, but rather the generally accepted use of pedal cycles as a way of getting around the city. Bikes everywhere, mainly upright with wicker baskets. And it seems to me (freshly out of the Middle East where drivers are confrontational or oblivious) that car, bus and taxi drivers are happy to accept that this is the normality and that the more bikes, the fewer cars.

I think I've seen the future, and it works!

It also helps that the city is beautiful and mainly flat!