Cycle use in London grew by 10% last year and is forecast to grow by 12% over the financial year 2014/15, according to Transport for London (TfL).
TfL says across London’s main roads, cycling levels in Q3 2014/15 (14 Sept to 6 Dec) were 10% higher than in the same quarter the previous year, and the highest since records began in 2000. It was the fifth record quarter in a row and by the end of 2014/15 TfL forecasts a 12% rise from the previous financial year.
Last year was also a record for hires on London’s Cycle Hire scheme, with 10,023,987 journeys made – up 5% on 2012 (the previous highest year) and 25% on 2013. Customer satisfaction with Cycle Hire has also improved, with more than 80% of members intending to renew – the highest proportion since the scheme began in 2010.
Boris Johnson, mayor of London, said: “These amazing numbers show how cyclists are becoming ubiquitous in London and prove, if further proof were needed, why we need to crack on with catering for them.”
Last year TfL also began monitoring the number of cycle journeys made within the central London Congestion Charge (CC) zone. Analysis from the first year of this monitoring indicates that more than 170,000 journeys are now being made each day in the CC zone. Bikes now make up around 16% of traffic in Central London, rising to around a quarter or even half of all journeys on some routes during peak hours.
Ben Plowden, director of strategy and planning for surface transport at TfL, said: “Our aim is to make cycling an integral part of London’s transport network and to be normalised so that anyone can jump on a bike to get to work, to the shops or to discover London.
“Seeing these continuously record breaking numbers of cyclists in London is a great demonstration that our work to make cycling easier and safer, including unprecedented levels of investment, is achieving this aim.”
The NHS special report is a bit outdated, things are changing rapidly day by day and who would one believe the NHS who basically deal with accident casualty statistics on bicycles or the DfT who I believe should have their finger on the pulse. One only has to look around the streets of London to realise that there are more cyclists now than there has perhaps ever been since the 1960s.
Bob Craven Lancs….. Space is Safe Campaigner
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Not withstanding the comment that exact numbers are uncertain due to lack of registration and perhaps only counted by the number of cyclists a remote camera operator ‘sees’, how much of the claimed increase is due to the electric assisted hire bikes? Cycling has always been the cheapest form of transport and was more prevalent in London during the fifties and before. The cause for a return? Manufactured congestion and pedestrianisation, the latter to which the cyclist has access to – legally or otherwise.
Derek Reynolds, Salop.
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As the 2013 NHS special report on cycling pointed out – there are no robust figures for levels of cycling due to the lack of a registration scheme for bicycles like there is for cars – I’m not suggesting there should be, I’m just pointing that individual cyclists can’t be easily identified or reliably counted.
Paul Biggs, Staffodshire
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If the figures of 16% and above are correct and occurring within the London area then according to some authorities we should begin to see a slow down or reduction in the number of incidents/collisions involving all two wheeled vehicles, hopefully. I hope that this will be the case. We shall have to wait and see.
Bob Craven Lancs…..Space is Safe Campaigner
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