I'll wear the flat foot thing.

My gf is very uneasy on bikes. After a lot of trips, I put her saddle up a bit for her. She immediately felt stronger and less tired while riding, but found that she wanted the saddle back down again for starting and stopping. Pity we don't see that sort of bike in the shops here.

However, on this part of the discussion, it's time for the OP to chime in. Just what is bothering him? If it's the traffic, I'll agree whole heartedly, I go to silly extremes to avoid playing with cars, but I've spent all my life either on push bikes or motorbikes or both and am a tad wary of the ineptitude of your average driver.

Richard