Elegant Parisians can teach Londoners a thing or two about cycling etiquette

Paris is as beautiful as it is congested by traffic. Cars hoot, honk, and jostle their way through the crush.

For the French the sight of cyclists more often than not without a crash helmet and always dressed in everyday clothes, weaving elegantly through the cars and lorries, abiding by the traffic lights and making their way in fine style is perfectly familiar.

No shouting. No aggression. No friction.

In London, of course, it is a different story. More often than not on my journey into work on my trusty Pashley hordes of be-spandexed figures come charging past at high speed. There’s hardly a journey I make without witnessing at least one cyclist shouting at a motorist or pedestrian.

Increasingly London cyclists seem to have taken to abusing each other. Unlike their Parisian counterparts, London cyclists seem increasingly aggressive, militant and het-up. This is all the odder because London has a much better and safer system of cycle lanes than Paris does.

I noted on a recent visit to the French capital the rise of the electric scooter. Paris seems to have several systems working, but all in the same basic way. You can pick up a scooter from wherever a previous user has propped it up against a wall or lamppost. Using a code you can then hire one for the required time – and what fun it is. People of all ages whiz about, through traffic, up and down pavements, across parks, and through pedestrianised areas.

This being Paris there are no rows or fisticuffs. Just impossibly elegant people zooming about. Loving couples somehow manage to squeeze two onto the machine, although this does affect the performance of the scooter somewhat. The electric scooter clearly has a big role to play in the future of transport in towns and cities.

London is already seeing scooters appear on its streets and pavements, but nothing like on the scale of Paris – yet. Before we add electric scooters fully however to our transport mix, as add we must, we have to find a way of improving the culture and behaviour of cycling in our capital. All sides have a part to play here. It should be a hugely enjoyable and pleasant way of travelling to, from and around our great capital city. All the more so once electric engines become the norm and combustion engines are consigned to history.