Seven years of progress in cycling have led to fewer barriers for men, but little to no change for women, Cycling UK has revealed.
Launching its campaign, ‘My ride. Our right’ the charity is calling for increased investment in active travel to get more women cycling.
A comparison of new YouGov research commissioned by Cycling UK in 2025, with historic YouGov research from 2018, reveals that where there’s been higher levels of investment in cycling infrastructure, more people are cycling.
Looking at London specifically, data highlights that in 2018, half of respondents (49%) saw a lack of separate cycle lanes as a barrier to cycling. Fast forward to 2025 and that’s been halved (26%).
Cycling UK says it hasn’t seen that elsewhere in Britain where investment is ‘patchy at best’.
The charity attributes the fall to the capital’s investment in a ‘comprehensive network of cycling and walking infrastructure’, which has enhanced the appeal and safety of cycling for many. DfT active travel trends data revealed that daily cycle stage journeys have more than doubled from 600,000 a day in 2012, to 1.33 million in 2024.
Looking more closely at the new YouGov research, Cycling UK found that at the UK level, barriers to cycling have widened between men and women across every measure in the past seven years.
The gender gap in response to barriers such as drivers overtaking too closely and people who cycle experiencing threatening behaviour while on their bike decreased by 5% for men but remained consistent for women.
A lack of physically segregated cycle lanes decreased for men by 4% but increased for women.
Cycling UK says these findings suggest that while improvements in infrastructure and driver behaviour have been enough to shift the perception of cycling for some men, who think cycling is now safer, it hasn’t had the same impact for women.
The survey went on to unpack the reasons why there are fewer barriers to cycling for men than there are for women. Over half of women (58%) believe their cycle journeys are limited by safety concerns and a lack of suitable infrastructure.
Female respondents pointed to roads not feeling safe enough to cycle (36%) and a lack of dedicated cycle routes (23%) as significant barriers to cycling. Cycling UK notes this highlights the unique challenges women face and a real need for safer streets and well-lit routes designed with the experiences of women in mind.
With perceptions of cycle safety playing such an important role in the transport choices of women, more than half (53%) of all the respondents are also put off cycling by what they read in the news.
Sarah McMonagle, director of external affairs at Cycling UK, said: “Many women, including myself, need to overcome barriers to cycling that simply don’t affect men in the same way. It’s important we build safe cycle routes designed with the experiences of women in mind – while also calling out bad behaviour on our roads. Gender should never play a role in whether or not people feel able to choose to cycle.
“We know that the best way to enable millions more women to cycle is to build a network of separate cycle lanes across the country. That’s why we’re calling on all four governments in the UK to invest at least 10% of their transport budgets in active travel as part of our new campaign.
“In England, the UK government is on the brink of making some momentous decisions about how it allocates funding over the next few years. Long term investment in active travel is essential to ensuring we realise the enormous economic, health and environmental benefits that come when more people cycle.”
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