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Scotland could do with some of the cycling initiative money announced the other day. Aberdeen, probably like all Scottish cities, seems at first glance a bad place for cyclists. Old and narrow arterial roads, gardenless tenements with no parking except a narrow street outside, a lack of canals and disused railways to make traffic-free shortcuts, cobblestones, and missed opportunities where redevelopment (eg retail parks) has occurred. And here's a theory to add to that: Scottish roads are so well made with their granite - tar mix that they never need resurfacing. They get endlessly patched up and bumpier.

On the plus side, the relative lack of congestion seems to make drivers more patient than in English cities, and those narrow arterial roads allow favour assertive cycling: deciding when a car will be let past.