In the UK, I've helped run some of the ninja bookshop crawls. There are usually guided routes that take you through independent bookshops - they are always interesting and great for discovering bookshops and the cities themselves.
Independent and second hand shops have really benefitted from these events and they usually offer discounts and gift bags for crawlers
I have worked in transport for over 5 years in software and have read most of the technical books in the internal London Underground library. I generally have read >50 technical books a year.
In my blog I collect and distill what I have learnt. I write about transport, software development and things I feel others should know.
Britain runs 20% of Europe's rail journeys. It has the least accidents and deaths of passengers and staff. It is considered the most improved rail network year on year since 1997. It has some of the lowest fares if you book far in advance (and count the cost of subsidisation for foreign fares).
While more infrastructure will indeed just create new wardrop equilibriums (and potentially sometimes make things worse - see Braess' paradox), banning cars is also a bad idea.
Frankly, cars are the most efficient means for individuals to travel - they may result in poor traffic flow on some single links, but otherwise they have huge benefits.
It is also worth noting that banning cars will affect the poor the most negatively. While poor people use cars less as a percentage of their population (about 9/10 the percentage of the amount that the rich use them), there are far more of them. Poor people are often the ones who have to manage multiple cases - a family and a job, a few jobs etc and often are unable to love near their workplace, or to find a (decent) job near their suburban homes. All of this means that the value of a car is much higher for them, as it can be the means for them to manage their more complex life scenarios efficiently (see "Disrupting Mobility" for more details - it's a great book)
1. Has no support from central london residents and
2. Sadiq Khan has already tried to Pedestrianise Oxford Street, but was blocked by parliament.
3. There are cycle lanes and cycle highways and there is a lot of development in the cycle space - and will no doubt be continued. Bus lanes and schemes to improve buses are constantly being tried, but their uptake is low, meaning that it is difficult to increase the service, as they are not very profitable