Video: Cambridge in 1945 – when bicycles ruled the roads

Isn't it a shame you can't just stick a wheel in some railings and not have your bike stolen? I wonder when people started stealing them?

Hembrow's post from 2011 does indeed mention 43000 students, but doesn't say where the number comes from. One Cambridge uni - Anglia Ruskin - has students split across three cities so we can't use the total on Wikipedia. This 2012 article puts the total at a rather lower 28574, and breaks that figure down in various ways.

In comparison, South Manchester is home to both the largest and the fourth largest universities in the UK by student population* with around 75000 students concentrated in quite a small area of the city. It's also pretty flat, but very few students cycle. The road between the main residences and campuses is apparently the busiest cycle route in the city, but that isn't saying much, and it's also been in the news as the most dangerous route for cyclists (although the figures in the article aren't adjusted for number of cyclists).

So,
lots_of_students + flat_city = lots_of_cyclists
still isn't true if the roads are perceived as busy and dangerous.

And I don't think it's because they're allowed to own cars. Most take the bus or walk.

*Not including the Open University or London which is a collection of 18 colleges spread across a wide area.

Interesting film of Cambridge, albeit mostly the university, at the end of WW2. That video only shows a moment in time when cars were less the thing, with rationing due to wartime also having an effect on methods of travel (petrol rationing didn't end until 1950). So it does little to prove that Cambridge can claim historically to have some kind of affinity with cycling, as much as it can be concluded from that film that wooden Cambridge professors always deliver lectures like they are reading from their latest published book, or undergraduates relax and have fun after a hard day of lectures by toasting scrummy crumpets in the fire.

I can remember in the 80s, 90s and early 2000s when bikes weren't particularly in widespread use in the city. The only time when you used to really see more bikes was during the summer used by the visiting foreign language school students aged about 15-18. It's changed somewhat again since then though with more people commuting by bike to and from work, but as HKCambridge points out, a lot about usage and the types cycling is a myth.

Really getting fed up with this 'Cambridge is a cycling city because students' myth.

58% of adults in Cambridge cycle at least once a month. 30% of Cambridge commuters use bikes for the greatest part of their journey (therefore excluding those who train + bike to London, for example). Cycling rates are higher in the outlying villages than most of the rest of the country too, heading into Cambridge for work.

Many of the city councillors cycle. The MP cycles.

Many students don't cycle: when everything you need in your life is less than a mile away, getting the bike out is actually a bit of a pain.

And if a student want to own a car, the universities can't practically stop them. The rule probably dissuades some people, but so long as you find somewhere to park it the universities are unlikely to know.

People cycle here for lots of different reasons, but the fact that you can cross Cambridge by bike faster than by any other mode of transport is a big factor. The road network is operating beyond capacity, and there are many more options available to people on bikes to avoid the congestion.

There appears to be a strong town v gown polarisation going on there.

Locals probably feel entitled to use their cars at every opportunity because they pay local rates, but according to gov.uk, full time students don't, never mind all the other benefits that having a world leading university brings to the town.