Cycling mileage on the up in England, according to latest figures

On August 30, the British government released its National Travel Survey statistics for walking and cycling for 2022, revealing that the amount of trips by bike has fallen to pre-pandemic levels, although the average mileage of cyclists in the UK is steadily rising. Find the full data sets here.

The average person in England in 2022:

• Made 15 cycling trips and cycled 57 miles
• Spent about seven minutes a week travelling by cycle
• Made 2% of all their trips by cycling
• Had an average trip length of 3.6 miles
• Covered 1% of their distance travelling by cycling

Number of trips by bike returns to pre-pandemic levels, but cycling mileage rises steadily

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Trips by bike against average miles cycled

Since the government began recording these figures in 2002, the number of bike trips has been steady, averaging between 14 and 18 per person, per year. In 2020, the number of trips jumped up to 20 per year. This might not seem like a dramatic increase, but it’s significant given the data's consistency in the past years.

For 2021 and now 2022, though, the amount of trips is back down to the usual range, with both years showing 15 trips per person, on average. This suggests that the surge of cycling induced by the pandemic was just a flash in the pan.

The average mileage of cyclists in England has, again, shown a return to the pre-pandemic trend. Since 2002, the average mileage covered on bikes has steadily risen. While it fluctuated a little each year, the mileage of England’s cyclists has increased on average by 2.3% each year between 2002 to 2019, taking it from 39 miles in 2002 to 54 miles in 2019.

In 2020, that shot up to 88 miles, a clear anomaly, and subsequently returned to 55 and 57 miles in 2021 and 2022. The post-pandemic figures are neatly aligned with the pre-pandemic trend, showing an average increase from 2019 of 2.7% year on year.

Shifting purpose for cycling

The reason for the steadily increasing mileage is perhaps linked to the changed purpose of cycling. The government reports that since the pandemic, the largest proportion of cycling trips have been taken for leisure rather than commuting or business.

This is a clear departure from the pre-pandemic trend, when most cycling journeys were for commuting or business, and it goes some way to explaining the increased mileage – the government reported that when adults cycled for over an hour, they were more likely to be riding for leisure than travel.

More sub-five mile journeys taken via active transport

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Percentage of sub-five mile journeys taken, cars/vans against cycling/walking

Perhaps the most encouraging finding in the new figures is that, for journeys under five miles, the proportion of trips taken either on foot or on a bike has remained high following an increase during the pandemic, while the proportion of sub-five mile journeys taken by car or van has dwindled slightly.

Since 2002, between 38% and 41% of sub-five mile journeys have been taken on foot or by bike. In 2020, that rose to 48%, and has remained high since – in 2021, it was 45%, and in 2022, 46%. The amount of sub-five mile journeys taken in a car either as a driver or passenger was above 50% between 2002 and 2019, but has remained below 50% from 2020 onwards.

What does the data tell us?

This year's statistics are not hugely surprising, nor do they present much of a deviation from what we saw in 2021. If anything, they show that we have returned, in the most part, to our patterns and behaviours from before the pandemic.

They cast some doubt on the government's ambitious aim to double the amount of cycling 'stages' (meaning one or more trips, completed without using another mode of transport in between) by 2025.