Active Lives Survey reveals five local authorities with the highest level of cycling rates.
Posted on in Business News , Cycles News
The government’s Active Lives Survey has revealed that, in 2022, Cambridge (50%), Oxford (35%), Isles of Scilly (30%), Hackney (28%), and Southwark (25%) were the five local authorities in England with the highest level of cycling rates.
These rates show a large contrast to the authorities with the lowest level of cycling rates, which were Bury, Sandwell (5%), Rochdale, Bolton (4%) and Oldham (3%). This does not include local authorities where data was suppressed due to low sample sizes.
In 2022, the proportion of adults reporting cycling at least once per week for any purpose remained similar to 2021, at 9%.
Cycling for leisure at least once a week follows a similar trend to cycling for any purpose. Cycling for leisure decreased slightly on 2021, from 6% to 5% and from 8% in 2019. Cycling for travel decreased over the pandemic and has since risen from 5% in both 2020 and 2021 to 6% in 2022. This is in line with the proportion of adults cycling from 2016 to 2019.
The proportion of adults cycling for leisure at least once per week has decreased slightly in comparison to 2021, falling from 6% to 5%. This is the lowest level of cycling for leisure seen since the Active Lives Survey first began.
Regional levels of cycling for leisure at least once a week remain similar in 2022 compared to 2021 with small decreases in all regions. Each of the regions witnessed increases in cycling for leisure during 2020, however, current cycling levels for this purpose remain lower than 2019, with the North East falling from 7% in 2019 to 4% in 2022.
Cycling for leisure at least once a week follows a similar trend to cycling for any purpose since a larger proportion of adults in the survey report cycling for leisure as opposed to for travel purposes.
Cycling for leisure remains low across most local authorities, with only 15 local authorities reporting more than 10% of adults cycling for leisure at least once per week. The highest prevalence of cycling for leisure at least once per week was in South Lakeland (13%), followed by York, Kingston upon Thames, and Oxford (all at 11%).
Levels of cycling for travel at least once a week in England were slightly above levels seen for leisure purposes for the first time in the series. Whilst cycling for travel has returned to similar levels seen in 2019, cycling for leisure remains below pre-pandemic levels.
Cycling for travel at least once per week has increased to 6% compared to 2021. Whilst cycling for travel purposes in England remained relatively similar from 2016 to 2019, it decreased during the COVID-19 pandemic to 5% in 2020 and 2021. This is also reflected in eight out of nine regions where cycling for travel has also seen an increase in activity compared to 2021, likely reflecting travel patterns that involved returning to the workplace.