By Michael Smith (Veshengro)
I would suggest it has more to do with the gasoline prices in the UK than with the Tour
Trips made by bikes in the capital shot up by 15% last year, according to Transport for London, a 150% increase since 2000, and this is indeed good news, for the cycle trades as well as the Planet.
In parts of Bristol, which was designated a “cycling city” by the Government in 2008, more than one in four people cycle to work and in York the number of cyclists has grown by 20% while in Cambridge a fifth of the population regularly travel by bike.
Official figures show that the number of commuter journeys taken by cyclists on the UK Cycle Network, which includes long distance and tourist routes, has risen by 16m to 73m trips a year.
The latest statistics showing the rise in the popularity of cycling come as the Tour de France gives cycling another boost in popularity, with sales of premium models set to soar.
Halfords, the UK’s leading seller of cycles, said the three week event, which features 190 riders covering 3600km, always lead to a rise in demand from customers keen to emulate their heroes.
Last year its limited edition Carrera TDF bike, featuring a lightweight compact aluminum frame and 16 gears, sold out during the Tour De France tournament.
This year sales of premium bikes are already up. Halfords recently launched a brand new range of Carrera road bikes, in line with the start of the TDF. And earlier this year it unveiled the new 2011 Boardman range.
Audiences for the ITV 4 coverage, which is sponsored by Boardman, the company run by former Tour de France and Olympic hero Chris Boardman, are nightly topping 1m as Britons tune in.
Hopes are high for British success with Mark Cavendish pressing for the coveted green jersey and Geraint Thomas and David Millar in the top teams. Unfortunately Bradley Wiggins crashed out with a broken collarbone.
The London figures for cycling show that on key bridges across the Thames, bicycles make up 27.7% of traffic crossing into the centre of the City between 7am and 10am, compared with 28.2% of private cars. Four years ago cars outnumbered bikes by two to one. In parts of the City of London bikes are outnumbering cars.
The surge in cycling in cities has been encouraged by the Government’s cycle2work scheme, which gives generous tax breaks for commuters buying bikes through their employer.
Halfords said its cycle sales in London are rising and it had opened two new stores in Wimbledon and Kilburn to cater for the urban cyclist.
Halfords Cycling Expert Paul Tomlinson said: “Britain is becoming a far more cycling friendly country and initiatives such as the cycle to work schemes, which offer tax incentives to buy a bike, are helping people to afford the type of bicycle they want and encouraging them to use it regularly.
”At this time of the year the Tour de France means a lot more people catch the cycling bug and we’re helping increasing numbers who want to get on a bike to commute, for sport or leisure.”
As I have, however, said already, I believe that the new uptake in cycling, and we are here talking more of commuting and other journeys, is more down to the increase in the cost of running a car, especially as regards to fuel costs, than to the fact that we have a few Brits in good positions in the Tour de France.
If it would be sports cycling on a serious increase I would concur with the Tour de France suggestion but as it is business travel and leisure travel that has moved from the car to the bicycle I would suggest that other factors play a much bigger role.
In all honesty we do not have much of a choice as oil is going up and up and in the long run will become unaffordable to the ordinary mortal. Thus the bicycle will become, once again, the mode of transportation of choice for many, including, I should think or local deliveries of the greengrocer, the butcher, the baker, etc. and, as far as I cam concerned a good thing that is going to be too.
© 2011
