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8 May 2025

ACT parent company Bira has welcomed the Bank of England's decision to reduce interest rates from 4.5% to 4.25%, calling it a "much-needed boost" for the retail sector, including for cycling...

8 May 2025

ACT parent company Bira has responded to the news that the 144-year-old Beales department store is staging a "Rachel Reeves Closing Down Sale" in its final weeks of trading, with giant yellow...

2 May 2025

Could the UK cycling industry be showing signs of renewed momentum? Following a challenging period marked by falling sales and overstocked inventories, overall trends and sales figures from...

2 May 2025

The Netherlands is set to legalise electric scooters and other light electric vehicles on public roads from July 2025, provided they are registered and display a license plate.

30 Apr 2025

The ACT has welcomed the announcement of a parliamentary inquiry into e-bike products not meeting safety regulations, which has been launched “in context of dangerous low-quality e-bike...

29 Apr 2025

Edinburgh has been named the UK’s top city for bike commuting, with 10.00% of its workforce choosing to cycle to work, according to new research.

28 Apr 2025

The Labour Government’s new Employment Rights Bill is set to be in force this year and the new regulations will impact high street retailers up and down the country.

25 Apr 2025

ACT parent company Bira welcomes the Chancellor's announcement of plans to create a level playing field for British businesses against unfair international trade practices.

15 Apr 2025

Retail Crime Remains Alarming - Bira's Latest Survey Reveals Urgent Need for Action

11 Apr 2025

Bira has cautiously welcomed the Prime Minister's announcement this week on plans to put 'thousands of Bobbies back on the Beat' with a new neighbourhood policing guarantee.

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Data shows bike lanes get people cycling and improve perceptions of public spaces.

Posted on in Business News , Cycles News

New research from the European Cyclists' Federation (ECF), a Brussels-based advocacy group, has confirmed that if a city has more bike lanes, more people will cycle. The results will give campaigners and urban planners a substantial footing to argue for more cycling infrastructure in towns and cities around the world. 

Bike lanes

Alongside this headline result, the research has shown that residents rate public spaces higher in cities with more cycling infrastructure, demonstrating that more bike lanes makes cities more pleasant for everyone, even those of us who do not ride a bike.

The research combined a large-scale quality of life survey from the European Commission with existing research into cycling infrastructure from the ECF.

The European Commission survey interviewed over 70,000 people from cities across Europe, investigating the factors that influence quality of life. The survey covered 83 cities in both EU and non-EU countries, including the UK, Turkey, Ukraine, the Western Balkans, and Scandinavia.

Among the range of questions, which covered everything from safety to finances and culture, was a question about cycling. The 70,000 survey respondents were asked whether they use cycling as their main mode of transportation on a typical day.

The ECF combined the data from the European Commission with their own data from their report, 'Quantifying Europe’s Cycling Infrastructure using OpenStreetMap', which compared the amount of cycling infrastructure between cities across Europe. 

The ECF compared cities by quantifying how many kilometres of cycling infrastructure there was in each city in proportion to the number of kilometres of total road infrastructure. Taking those figures together as a ratio, they could rank each city for its level of cycling infrastructure.

With a clear picture of how much cycling infrastructure there was in each city, they could compare those results to the quality-of-life survey and look for correlations.

The clearest finding, and the one that is the most important for the ECF’s role as advocates for cycling, was that there was strong correlation between the amount of cycling infrastructure in a city and the amount of people who say they use cycling as their main mode of transport.

"So if you have lots of cycling infrastructure, people will also cycle more,” explains Holger Haubold, the ECF’s Director of Data.

“It might seem obvious, but for many politicians it’s not obvious yet that if you invest in cycling infrastructure, people will also cycle more, with all the benefits that this brings, in terms of public health through physical activity, in terms of congestion reduction, in terms of, of course, climate change.”

The survey data also revealed that cycling infrastructure improves perceptions of public spaces, proving that bike lanes make cities more pleasant for everyone, whether you are a cyclist or not.

“There was a specific question in the quality-of-life survey on how satisfied people are with public spaces in their city,” explains Holger.

Again, the cities that scored well for this question were the cities with the highest proportion of cycle lanes.

“There is a clear correlation between how satisfied people are with public spaces in the city and the existence of cycling infrastructure.”

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