Cycle culture in the UK

I read this article on road cc about UK cycling cultures

Really really interesting! Having had 10 years in Holland, then 5 years in London and now 7 in Cambridgeshire and in all that time spent most of my travel time on bikes up until moving to Cambridgeshire. I feel invested in projects like this.
I live 17 miles north of Cambridge where cycling is popular but nothing like Cambridge standards. Cambridge most similar to Holland in that the bikes are similar in style, there are plenty of families cycling with cargo bikes etc and yes, people wear normal clothes. I regularly cycle my kids to school in a dress. The major difference is the prevalence of shared cycle paths and frankly appalling cycling infrastructure in Cambridge. It's actually one of my least favourite places to cycle. I'd much rather cycle in London.
I spent a few days in London over the summer and took my Brompton with me, we cycled from Camden to the city along the canal and having lived by Old St and worked in a bike shop in London, cycle culture there really fascinates me. The trend now is for fixed wheel bikes, the safe ones have a brake, but they don't always! When I left 7 years ago, they were around but the sheer number of cyclists and fixed wheelers at every set of lights was phenomenal. I remembered that London cycling is all about the sprint from one set of lights to the next. Bromptons pull away from lights very well and are good for sprinting too.
There is a faint withering annoyance with the Boris bike riders who often seem to be in the wrong lane or holding up a bus but I think the buses, taxi's and experienced riders seemed to see them as a good thing.
My sister lives in the middle of Bristol and with the hills being what they are, a good set of gears is what you really need. People in Bristol really do have good bottoms and legs! Bristol is full of rebels and cycling is one of their causes, against all odds, hills, wet weather and so on, cycling there is becoming the future.