Cycling in England Down 5% Since Last Year

honestly given the summer we’ve had its not surprising.  doubtful more funding can sort a weather controlling machine.

that said more funding for cycling infrastructure is a good thing

Traffic is shit, drivers are nobs, roads are in a shit state, bikes are well expensive, no incentive from schools for kids to ride to school or the infrastructure isn’t their for kids to feel safe, constant moaning about cyclists from the drivercentric media…..

Not a surprise really. See the 3rd world country thread, the place is going to the dogs I tell thee!!…

Edit: and the government doesn’t give a shit about helping anyone or meeting any green targets.

So slightly up on prepandemic levels but lower than last year, sounds about right as people find themselves increasingly back in the office and shorter on time.

Car traffic is still 8.5% down on prepandemic, though noticeably up from last year.

It’s not funding, it’s not the state of the roads or driving, it isn’t the weather it’s people having to get kids to school and then to the office. People popping to the shop for tea on the way home (I’m the car) rather than going to the shop on the bike.

Normal service is being resumed.

Would love to see the confidence intervals.

I have definitely felt that since the changes to the Highway Code giving cyclists more protection from motorists, the absolute opposite has happened.

A lot more aggression and antagonistic behaviour by drivers as well as many more punishment passes for no good reason.

Being hit by a car while stopped at a pedestrian crossing made me question giving up riding the road all together!

Although I’ve been smashed off my bike twice by motorists in the past couple of years, I’ve been thinking that drivers are generally more considerate with passing space than they were before the rule changes. I know I definitely take a more dominant position in most roads on my bike now and I think that helps. 99.99% of drivers are fine, we only notice the tiny percentage of idiots.

The problem with these headlines and “statistics” is this:

Walking and cycling statistics present data using two main sources, the National Travel Survey (NTS) and the Active Lives Survey (ALS). The NTS is a household survey of personal travel by residents of England travelling within Great Britain, from data collected via interviews and a one-week travel diary. The ALS is a household survey by residents of England, from data collected via a push-to-web survey.

How many of us here were given the NTS or ALS surveys to complete? And what was the number of completed surveys?
Cycling down by 5% can be an either incredibly accurate or inaccurate statistic depending on the demographic surveyed.
On the travel diary does that include all forms of travel or just commuting? I’m out on the bike at least twice a week for a 2-3 hr ride each time but I don’t commute by bike as my office is a 42 mile round trip, I also wouldn’t class going for a jaunt around a trail center as travelling by bike so, I wonder what the ins and outs of these surveys were and how that compared to text book definitions and personal interpretations..

Entirely expected and surprised its not down by a much higher percentage. Society has now irreversibly organised itself to be slavishly dependent on private cars for the vast majority of its mobility needs, to the benefit of the individual (for convenience)  and the automobile and oil industries ( for making huge profits). We are massively inept at seeing the true detrimental impact of car dependency on society in the rise in obesity, air pollution causing asthma, injuries and deaths from accidents and impacts of CO2 emmisions in the warming of the climate. The loss of amenity and green space for all the roads and parking cars need also does not seem to perturb the car driving masses. Personally Ive not been on a road bike in 12 months and do the vast majority of my riding now via off road paths. bridleways as the standards of driving on the roads are appalling.

I have cycled pretty much the same amount every year for the last 20 years. While cycling was A LOT nicer during the pandemic if makes no difference to whether I cycle or not, but then I am an all year round, all weather cyclist so not the norm I suppose.

I never cycle into town as the bikes are worth £1500 and £4000 respectively, I’d never leave £1500 quid locked up to a post.

This is a huge part of the problem, I take the E-cargo bike into town al the time but I’m not leaving it for long and not at weird times of the day, being an E cargo bike it’s also easy to carry multiple hefty locks wherever I go.

Planning on adding a Knogg scout alarm and tracker to it as soon as they do an Android version.

However, for commuting to work where the bike has to left locked up all day, proper, secure (i.e. ‘inside the building’ bike parking is crucial. Even a very basic commuter bike is £500+ now.

Newer and more progressive workspaces are slowly improving on this front, especially in London, but for many many people this is the No.1 reason not to ride, even if the bike itself isn’t nicked someone could nick bits off it or otherwise mess with it.

These statistics should be wake up call for the government

🙂

>I never cycle into town as the bikes are worth £1500 and £4000 respectively, I’d never leave £1500 quid locked up to a post.<

Yep same issues here – i never ride to the shops or similar as mine are worth £2k+ each. In hindsight i wish i’d not sold a couple of my older bikes as they would have been a lot more suitable for ‘car replacement’ duties.

@robertajobb

the core of it (Matlock / Cromford / Whatstalndwell / Belper / Duffield / Derby, still seems to be as distant a dream as ever.

Because it’s nigh on impossible to create? You couldn’t run it along the length of the river as it’s too meandering, too much land would need to be bought and would be flooded a lot too! Go away from the valley floor and it would be too steep for most. The A6 is the only route really and how would you do it through the narrow sections and towns? You’d need to take up road space and it isn’t there to take in many places.

The easy answer is use the branch line – if it’s purely for commuting get a folding bike and take the train.

Doesn’t need an attendant – if anything a human on minimum wage is going to be the weak link in any “secure” bike storage.

Disagree. The staff are what gives the confidence to use them, especially for the vulnerable and first time users, then you have CCTV to keep an eye on the staff.

Disagree. The staff are what gives the confidence to use them, especially for the vulnerable and first time users, then you have CCTV to keep an eye on the staff.

Really?

(IMO) The point is that cycling into a town centre should be a minimal impact, affordable option that just relies on fixed, passive infrastructure and users owning a basic bike and a lock, not some attended cycle park so the middle-classes can stash their ego-chariot with the help.

Buy a cheap runabout bike rather than demand expensive facilities just so you can securely store an overvalued personal asset.

Every time cycling safety comes up there are the usual voices calling for more cycle lanes etc etc etc.

We made a decision to try and lower our carbon footprint by riding from home more rather than driving all over the country to go mountain biking. This means more road riding.

The problem is that as we get out of the urban area we have to share the roads with other traffic. Driving standards appear to have deteriorated over the past few years and things like sticking to anything like the speed limit has long gone. When driving a car in the Manchester suburbs it is not unsual to be overtaken when sticking to 30 and 20 mph speed limits. Red Lights appear to be optional and aggression and lack of restraint are common.

Yesterday I cycled to Wilmslow and back in the space of 16 miles I had 2 very closs passes (stick your elbow out and you could touch the car) and got overtaken by a middle aged man driving a Mini. This overtake was performed on a narrow lane midway through a tight bend with no way of seeing if the road was clear of on comming traffic. He then turned into the Wilmslow Carrs car park less than 100 metres from the overtake.

Your are not even safe in the cycle lanes, on Saturday I was driving through Chorlton doing 30mph and being left behind by two young men on E scooters in the cycle lane going against the flow for that side of the road.

Add in bike theft, why would anybody take up riding a bike?