Cycling safety has been thrown into the spotlight after a series of crashes with Olympic heroes knocked off by other road users. City biker Daniel Watson, from cycling shop On Your Bike, kept a diary of a week on the mean streets of Birmingham.
Birmingham was recently ranked one of the worst cities in the UK for cyclists.
The Campaign for Better Transport study ranked it near the bottom of the league, 25 out of 26 cities, finding that Birmingham "scores badly for both pedestrian safety and commuter journeys by cycle".
According to the campaign, a fifth of car journeys in the city are less than two miles and could easily be made by cycling or walking.
But that isn't happening - in part due to a combination of heavy traffic, lack of cycling lanes, and dangerous drivers.
Olympic gold medallist and Tour De France winner Bradley Wiggins, team Sky head coach Shane Sutton and former Green Jersey winner and world champion Mark Cavendish have all been involved in collisions with cars or vans in recent weeks - offering city people an even better excuse to stay off their bikes.
Keen city cyclist Daniel Watson, aged 30, who works at On Your Bike in Bradford Street, Digbeth, commutes to work each day on two wheels.
A keen rider for the last 18 years, he agreed to keep a diary of a week's experiences on the roads and cycle paths of Birmingham.
With swearing pedestrians, near misses with lorries and long traffic jams, Daniel's experiences expose the perils of pedal power on the city streets.
Here he charts a week on two wheels in the city:
* Monday - Stirchley to Digbeth
Despite the unrelenting drizzle I choose to ride to work. The car takes twice as long to cover the four-mile journey and I only use it if the rain is torrential or I need to carry something larger than my pannier bags allow. Decent waterproofs keep me warm and dry.
I'm lucky enough to live adjacent to the Rea Valley Cyclepath; a mostly off-road cycle path running from the southern suburbs right into the town centre through Cannon Hill Park.
Today, like most days, my ride is free-flowing and far more rousing than sitting behind the wheel in a traffic jam. You can see if you live near a similarly traffic-free route at www.toptubemap.com.
* Tuesday - Digbeth to Central Library
Birmingham city centre can be infuriating to navigate by bike. The central shopping district is practically a no-go area, and the one-way system can be daunting.
I leave work and make my way around the markets on Upper Dean Street. There are some markings for bike lanes, but they're so heavily faded as to be useless. Cars routinely stop in the bike-only ASL (Advanced Stop Line) boxes, negating their purpose which is to allow bikes a head start at junctions.
A Volkswagen lurches past me, but has to stop almost immediately at the next queue and I filter through to the front, as I'm allowed and encouraged to do.
Leaving the library, I'm faced with walking 500m or so back down one-way Hill Street, or taking Paradise Circus Queensway.
Inner-city highways like this demand confidence and sometimes bloody mindedness in order to defend your patch of road against surging cars so maybe it's these relics of car-centric planning that do most to discourage potential new cyclists.
Bikes are certainly noticeable by their absence in Birmingham when compared to most UK cities, let alone continental ones. Back on Hill Street now and on to the contraflow bike lane coming past Mr Egg.
A texting pedestrian looks set to wander across my path, understandably not anticipating bikes to be coming the 'wrong way'. A ring of my bell is enough to alert him and stop him in his tracks.
