It seems it’s not your imagination. There really are more cyclists on the UK's roads, and in general they’re covering more road miles.
A newly released Census analysis form the Office for National Statistics reveals that there has been an increase in the number of people cycling to work.
However at 741,000 working residents aged 16 to 74 [apparently you won't be cycling to work after this age] in 2011, it’s actually only 90,000 more than in 2001.
That’s perhaps at odds with the perception amongst operators and drivers negotiating our congested streets.
However, on closer inspection the figures show that cycling has increased by a disproportionally large amount within our cities and urban areas, where there is a natural concentration of both people and traffic (motorised or not). Indeed, the data suggests that despite it being busier you are twice as likely to cycle within an urban area than a rural one.
For example, in the ten years to 2011 the number of people living in London that cycled to work has more than doubled from 77,000 to 155,000 (and anecdotally has continued to climb).
From a lower base, there have been significant increases in Brighton (109% up between 2001 and 2011 to 6,635), Bristol (95% to 15,768), Manchester (83% to 8,426), Newcastle (81% to 3,223) and Sheffield (80% to 4,267).
In regards regions, the South East (excluding London) has the next largest concentration of workers cycling in, with a 4.1% increase in the ten year period to 124,156. Although there was a 16.9% increase in cycling in Wales, it still has the fewest cycling commuters at 19,156.
It seems for those operators entering cities on a regular basis, and certainly within London, vulnerable user training and driver aids such as cameras and side-scan make sense.
On your bike! other cycling facts...
- In Cambridge, 29% of working residents cycled to work, making it the local authority with highest rate of cycling to work. The next highest rate was in Oxford (17%) followed by Isles of Scilly and Hackney at 14%.
- There are 31 local authorities where over 5% of working residents cycled to work. The proportion was greater than 10% in six of these local authorities.
- There were 29 local authorities where less than 1% of working residents cycled to work.
- The four local authorities with the lowest rates were all in Wales with Merthyr Tydfil the lowest with 0.3% of working residents cycling to work in 2011.