Respectfully, I have to disagree. I have plenty of great experiences cycling the city, and the quality of the "cycle routes" varies greatly across the boroughs. Yes, if you're out an about in south london, it's pretty clear that you're in "car is king" suburban planning, and the density of rail lines makes planning good routes difficult (as there are few ways to cross, everything is funnelled though a few major junctions). In spite of the blue paint, the A3 is NOT a cycle route, the most ironic thing being that most of it can be ridden on residential streets directly parallel for a much improved experience.
I ride 12 miles from dalston to gunnersbury most days, even though the overground goes direct (and the overground is infinitely more pleasant than the picadilly), because it's extremely pleasant. I don't take the obvious route, straight down through angel and bloomsbury, heading for bayswater and goldhawk road, that would just be silly. Instead I took a look at a map and plotted a slightly longer course through camden going north of regent's park (and also skipping to the north of shepherd's bush. And it's great, very little traffic, not even many buses.
tl;dr
You can't expect all roads in a big old city to be "pleasant" to cycle, hell, many of them are unpleasant in a car. But you have the freedom on a bike to plot massively more different routes to your destination, ugly roads are rarely unavoidable.
At least that's my experience in the north. I often feel a bit exposed cycling clapham / stockwell / brixton areas late at night, but that's because I haven't invested in the local knowledge...
I ride 12 miles from dalston to gunnersbury most days, even though the overground goes direct (and the overground is infinitely more pleasant than the picadilly), because it's extremely pleasant. I don't take the obvious route, straight down through angel and bloomsbury, heading for bayswater and goldhawk road, that would just be silly. Instead I took a look at a map and plotted a slightly longer course through camden going north of regent's park (and also skipping to the north of shepherd's bush. And it's great, very little traffic, not even many buses.
tl;dr
You can't expect all roads in a big old city to be "pleasant" to cycle, hell, many of them are unpleasant in a car. But you have the freedom on a bike to plot massively more different routes to your destination, ugly roads are rarely unavoidable.
At least that's my experience in the north. I often feel a bit exposed cycling clapham / stockwell / brixton areas late at night, but that's because I haven't invested in the local knowledge...