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West Yorkshire sees drop in cycling levels for 2013-14Yorkshire Grand Depart crowd (picture credit Welcome to Yorkshire, letouryorkshire com)

West Yorkshire sees drop in cycling levels for 2013-14

Tour effect conspicuous by its absence with fewer people getting on their bikes than the year before
by Alex Bowden
Sat, Jun 27, 2015 13:47
14

The number of people who regularly cycle in West Yorkshire is the lowest for any county or metropolitan area in England. According to figures from the Active People Survey, conducted by Sport England, just 9.5 per cent of people cycled at least once a month in 2013-14.

Strikingly, this represents a decrease of 0.9 per cent compared to the 10.4 per cent who cycled that often in 2012-13. The survey runs from October to October each year, so the latest figures cover the period in which West Yorkshire played host to the Tour de France.

Yesterday we reported that the proportion of people cycling at least once a month in England in 2013-14 was 15 per cent. The West Yorkshire figures also contrast with those for the East Riding of Yorkshire (21.8 per cent) and North Yorkshire (17.2 per cent), while the City of York can boast that 32.3 per cent of its residents cycle at least monthly.

The picture is similar when it comes to the percentage of people who cycle more frequently. Only 5.5 per cent of West Yorkshire residents cycled weekly in 2013-14, compared to 6.5 per cent in the previous year and nine per cent nationally. 1.5 per cent cycle at least five times a week, up from 1.4 per cent, but still less than the national figure of three per cent.

Kirklees councillor, Martyn Bolt, who champions cycling in the area, told the Huddersfield Examiner that he was shocked by the figures.

“It is a surprise because the evidence I see points the other way. Not only do we have the success of the Tour races which attracted huge crowds and the Criterium races through Huddersfield, but the cycling clubs in the area have seen a big rise in members.

“We also have the excellent work being done by Streetbikes, who are taking cycling to the community, and a series of initiiatives by Kirklees to encourage people to try cycling. But we do need to take the report seriously and from a health point of view, it is important the councils look to see what needs to be done.”

Notably, while the overall proportion of people cycling at least monthly in England of 15 per cent does represent an increase on the 14.7 per cent figure for 2012-13, it is still lower than the proportions seen in 2011-12 and 2010-11.

West Yorkshire
DFT statistics
Alex Bowden

Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.

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14 comments

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harrybav | 9 years ago
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I'm with Felixcat on this - I think infrastructure (not TdF) boosts transport cycling. Just like F1 doesn't boost driving, but increasing car park spaces does.

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pamplemoose | 9 years ago
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Definitely more cyclists in Leeds compared to a few years ago although this is my opinion rather than FACTS from a poll. If the general election has taught me anything it's that polls are always correct 100% of the time.

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Matthewjb | 9 years ago
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High levels of cycling in York unsurprising. It's flat so everyone can do it. Not just 'proper cyclists'.

Load of cyclists on the Yorkshire roads. And increased from previous years. But unless you're keen your unlikely to cycle in W Yorks because it's so hilly.

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felixcat replied to Matthewjb | 9 years ago
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Matthewjb wrote:

High levels of cycling in York unsurprising. It's flat so everyone can do it. Not just 'proper cyclists'.

I live in the Holland, Lincolnshire. Flat as a table for miles. Unlike Holland, Netherlands across the North Sea, we don't have high levels of cycling. Seems that road conditions matter too.

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SteppenHerring | 9 years ago
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Yorkshire is really hilly. It's not surprising.

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crikey | 9 years ago
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http://labs.strava.com/heatmap/#6/-120.90000/38.36000/blue/bike

Have a look here, you'll have to drag the map across, but you'll see the complete lack of any activity in West Yorkshire.

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crikey | 9 years ago
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I've been riding around West Yorkshire for 30 years and there are bloody thousands of cyclists there, getting in my way, riding on the roads that I'd like to ride alone and generally being pleasant and friendly.

I'm all for surveys of this kind and would hope that it encourages people to go away and ride somewhere else and leave me in peace.

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Chris James | 9 years ago
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I saw this in our local paper (The Huddersfield Examiner) and also saw Martin Bolt's slightly baffled comments.

To be honest, I really don't believe the figures. My sister in law has recently moved to the area and commented on the large number of cyclists around, and the numbers of kids in my cycling club has probably doubled in the last two years, and the adults are well up too.

West Yorkshire is extremely hilly, so there probably are fewer occasional cyclists than in flatter areas, but there are also a very large number of enthusiastic riders - far more than I see on my holidays in other parts of the country.

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the little onion | 9 years ago
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it would be interesting to reflect on any infrastructure developments going on. I don't think there is any significant things happening that would make cycling easier (the Leeds cycle city ambition project is rubbish, and far from being completed) but neither can I think of any trend in road developments that makes cycling less pleasant. Overall, my suspicion is that this is noise rather than signal.

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KirinChris | 9 years ago
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If they are using the same methodology year to year then the results should be reliable in terms of trends.

However it seems odd that it should be so very different from other nearby areas, especially if they were surveyed in the same way.

An apocryphal rule of research is "If something looks interesting, check again - it's probably wrong."

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Paul Carr | 9 years ago
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Hard to believe this is true....maybe there are fewer people commuting but road cycling for leisure and fitness in this part of W Yorks- Keighley/Worth Valley seems just as popular if not more so post TDF. Recent article in Cycling weekly highlights Ikley CC with 1000's of members.

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PonteD | 9 years ago
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Maybe their phone polls don't show many cyclist because we're all out on our bikes.

In the last 2-3 months I've definitely seen more cyclist's on my commute. Last year I provably saw about 5 different cyclist's on my commute all year that has easily doubled since the start of spring this year.

I work in Leeds but live in the Wakefield council area, Leeds is definitely more pro active than Wakefield in my experience when it comes to provision for cycling.

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joe-irish | 9 years ago
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Would be interesting to see what demo was polled since I ride in West Yorkshire and numbers have definitely not gone down!

EDIT: looks like its primarily a phone survey, from the website;
'High quality survey design including:

Randomly sampled landline telephone interviews with adults aged 16 and over – extended to age 14 and over in July 2012
Calls are made throughout the year and at different times across each day
500 interviews per local authority (district and single tier) each year.'

Maybe all the cyclists i'm seeing just use a mobile phone..

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Metaphor | 9 years ago
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Very disappointing. I have been away from Leeds this past year. Can anyone in W. Yorks comment on whether they feel these statistics reflect what they have seen?

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