London cycling journeys up 20% compared with before Covid pandemic

Outer London covers quite a lot of suburban (verging on rural) sprawly places where a lot of the building took place following the motoring boom of the 1920s and 1930s. Unsurprisingly, these places that were literally built for drivers are heavily populated by people who identify strongly as drivers.

It's going to be a lot harder to get good infra built out in Metroland or leafy former-Kent, as there's a vicious circle of car-centric roads - "need" to drive - only drivers live here - car-centric roads. It can be done, but it might need demographic change and a real economic war on motorists to make it happen. 

Brauchsel wrote:

Outer London covers quite a lot of suburban (verging on rural) sprawly places where a lot of the building took place following the motoring boom of the 1920s and 1930s. Unsurprisingly, these places that were literally built for drivers are heavily populated by people who identify strongly as drivers.

Actually, quite a lot of them were initially built with cycle lanes. 

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/campaign-under-way-to-resurrect-l...

The St Helier one is actually on my route to work, but is now a combination of some poorly surfaced, segregated-but-have-to-stop-at-every-junction cycle lanes; shared paths and car parking.

(Pedantry "cycle paths" or "cycle tracks" rather than "lanes" I believe).

Hoorah for Carlton Reid!

The reality of these paths is interesting.  They were opposed by the cycling groups of the time on the grounds that this was a measure to "get the cyclists off the roads".  And... they were right!  Those heading the Ministry of Transport did indeed want cyclists out of the way to make room for the car.

Unfortunately as we know that would succeed spectacularly - without any need for cycle paths or specific regulation aimed at cyclists.

That's not what I read from the article.

The increase in the mentioned ethnic minority demographics (15%) is lower than of London as a whole (24%).

I'll look forward to getting some more information, but I'm not surprised inner London has a higher increase than central and outer London. Inner London is going to be a much shorter and manageable commute by bike, while still being expensive by public transport. Outer London is going to vary a lot of course, but for commuting to central London a lot of journeys would be a lot longer.

And in my experience there are lots of delivery riders in outer London as well as inner London boroughs.

momove wrote:

The increase in the mentioned ethnic minority demographics (15%) is lower than of London as a whole (24%).

I don't think that's what the percentages mean. I take them as saying (e.g.) that 11% of black respondents cycled in the pre-pandemic period, and now 15% of black respondents cycle. 

I'd be quite surprised if that four-point increase was significantly caused by delivery riders (it'd be around 48,000 black people). I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of it was due to (relatively, and mostly) good infrastructure making cycling seem like a normal way of getting about rather than a weird hobby for middle-aged white men. And anecdotally, the stolen Lime bike seems to have supplanted the illegal e-scooter in the affections of my local teenage criminals who are largely black. Don't know if they were surveyed though. 

Brauchsel wrote:

I don't think that's what the percentages mean. I take them as saying (e.g.) that 11% of black respondents cycled in the pre-pandemic period, and now 15% of black respondents cycle. 

Sorry, I must have worded it poorly (or thought about it poorly!) - your point above is what I meant. I suppose 12% to 15% participation is a greater increase than 21% to 24%, but a lower starting point must be easier to increase. In any case, I'm in favour of an under represented group increasing participation.

Good point about infrastructure and where it is being built, and normalising bicycles as a mode of transport. That and the clacking Lime bikes.

Brauchsel wrote:

I'd be quite surprised if that four-point increase was significantly caused by delivery riders (it'd be around 48,000 black people).

An additional consideration in the equation would be the ethnicity of delivery riders: I don't know if my area (Peckham/East Dulwich/Camberwell/Brixton) is unusual but black people seem to be significantly underrepresented amongst delivery riders around here, with the vast majority being Eastern European, Middle Eastern or South American. So I would definitely agree with you that delivery workers have not had a significant impact on the rise in the number of black riders; I've definitely noticed an increase in the number of young black professionals commuting and also black people sport riding over the last couple of years.

I'm in the same sort of area as you, and that does seem to be true. I suspect the split might be more due to nationality/immigration status than ethnicity, as most black people around here are (going by accent) British or at least long-established here. The Middle-Eastern/eastern Europeans are (again going by accent) not, and I'd guess that gig-economy work like that is what's open to them.

Interestingly (or not), Royal Mail and DPD-type delivery van drivers round here are almost uniformly black, and a few years older than the teenagers/early-20s delivery cyclists.

As a more general comment, I would say that the cycling population of London is much more diverse these days, even if still way short of being fully representative.  I've been commuting by bike into London since 1996 (on and off) and there has been a noteable increase in both women and ethnic minority cyclists in recent years.  The "it's all middle class white men" stereotype is getting more and more outdated.