Londoners take to the cycle lanes

Jonathan Boyce, owner of Two Wheels Good in Crouch End, north London, said: "We sold twice as many on Saturday as we did last weekend, but it's not the way I wanted to grow my business."

Cycle sales in central London started to rise immediately after the blasts, when people trapped in central London sought an alternative to the paralysed bus and Tube systems. A salesman in Spitalfields, near the Aldgate attack, said: "We sold as many bikes on Thursday as we do in a normal week. We had lots of people who just wanted to get home. There were people heading out to Kent and Essex with a fair old trek ahead of them."

Fin Findley, at Cycle Surgery in Highbury, said: "Thursday was very busy and we've been flat out since. Cycling in London is still dangerous, but you are in control. On a bus or train, you are at the mercy of someone else."