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news
London cyclists at Hyde Park Corner (copyright Britishcycling.org_.uk).jpgCycling is Britain's least favourite means of travel, survey finds
Cycling is the British public’s least favoured way to travel, according to a new survey which found that just four in ten people favoured getting around by bicycle, compared to 49 per cent who have an unfavourable view of it.
Moreover, among all modes of travel, cycling is the only one in which people were more likely to have a “highly unfavourable” rather than “somewhat unfavourable” view, at 29 per cent versus 20 per cent.
Men are more likely than women to have a favourable view of cycling, at 49 per cent versus 32 per cent.
That finding may well be linked to previous research we have covered here on road.cc which consistently shows that women are more likely than men to put off cycling on the road because they perceive it to be too dangerous.
The findings come from a newly published poll by consumer research organisation YouGov, who surveyed 1,737 people nationally and 1.068 people for a separate comparison survey covering London.
YouGov found that despite efforts to encourage cycling in the capital, including the Cycle Superhighways programme and the Santander Cycles scheme, Londoners were less likely to favour cycling as a form of transport, at 34 per cent versus 40 per cent nationally.
The survey also found that travelling by car as a passenger was favoured as a way of travel by around twice as many people who cited cycling, at 81 per cent. Meanwhile, 73 per cent favoured driving themselves.
Those came out ahead of public transport, where taking the train, at 67 per cent, was much more favoured than travelling either by bus or coach, at 47 per cent and 42 per cent, respectively.
Perhaps surprisingly, however, the top response was walking, favoured by 84 per cent of people – with only 11 per cent holding a negative view.
Bucking the national trend, Londoners were much more likely to support public transport options rather than taking the car, with only 44 per cent saying they favoured driving themselves, and 67 per cent citing travelling in a car as a passenger.
A number of factors are likely to lie behind that – the extensive public transport network in the city, the Central London congestion charging zone, the cost and difficulty of parking, and above all the fact that car ownership in London is well below the national average.
You can see the topline survey results below.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
Latest Comments
- Runtilyoudrop 2 sec ago
Does this mean they will answer my emails and give my money back?
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Yes, it's something I notice a lot when I'm cycling in traffic or riding my motorbike in traffic. I pass a lot of vehicle with drivers obviously...
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Inhumane system that now will be getting even worse.
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In case anyone missed it in yesterdays blog here are the two pevious articles. The second one contains the testimony from the driver....
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The old role was appointed at the Mayor's pleasure; is in addition to the permanent staff of the Combined Authority. I'm not sure if Adam was an...
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Nothing says "welcoming environment" like uniformed thugs, umm I mean "security patrols " roaming the area.
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Pretty clearly stated several times in the text that the issue was not related just to his son. And besides, everybody watching the races could see...
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All Fizik and Selle Italia saddles (though not all their other products) are made in Italy I believe, and their 3D printed models definitely are.
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If you're not on the road with a car, I bet its driver is much less likely to swerve into your space *. Because you're not "in the way"! (Any...
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The problem with this argument, though, is that it's just not true....
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14 comments
All forms of transport suck in some way.
Public transport involves the public, many of whom smell and have no idea of personal space or consideration. It's also vastly overpriced.
Cars are driven by the public, once again most with no consideration in the bubble of metal.
Motorbikes offer a level of freedom but have a level of danger from being too fast for most people if ragged and up for higher speed SMIDSY. I don't use mine for all weathers as it's too powerful once the road grip goes.
Cycling can be a physical and mental health benefit but dressing to weather is a pain sometimes and once again idiots in cars can ruin your day.
I beg to differ.
Alligator.jpg
Is that my cycling hero/national treasure, Grayson Perry?
I read the first part of the text as a statement or headline to the graph "The prospect of taking public transport is still less appealing to brits than riding by car."
I should have read the subtext.
It's still a crap question, especially having planted an opinion and open to many possible interpretations by the responder.
FWIW the train is my absolute last transport resort: Inflexible, invonvenient, expensive, prone to delays and slow. But I am very keen that other people use it to keep the roads clear for me.
The question seems to be included in the image above. At this time in this country it's hardly surprising that a lot of people respond negatively to a question that sayd "...of having to travel by..." when the question conjures up images of riding in heavily congested and dangerous roads. Maybe it would have been more useful if they were asked "If there were fully segregated bike lanes and facilities would you to choose to....".
Presumably the 84% of people who favour walking, means that 84% favour
other people walking
.
There's no sign of them on the streets that I use, unless maybe they're taking about the strenuous walk from the car park to the shop by the car park?
How many of the 49% have ridden a bike since childhood, if at all? If they haven't then their opinion is worthless. Probably similar to the proportion of the 52% whose knowledge of the EU extends no further than what they'd read in the tabloids. And who are the 11% who are unfavourable towards walking?
What was the question? Without that we have no context.
For example - are 49% of the population unfavourable to cycling for their own actual travel, for a hypothetical trip to the shops, or are they making a comment about other people cycling being perceived as an inconvenience to themselves?
True: you can prove anything by asking the right question, or by phrasing it in a particular way, or by making it multiple choice and picking a restricted set of possible replies
The question is above the survey results, below the text in bold: "Do you have a favourable or unfavourable view of..."
I'm not really surprised by the result for cycling either - I'm actually surprised that walking comes out on top, given the amount of miniscule journies that are undertaken in cars.
The main considerations, I suspect, would be convenience, comfort, and safety - and the biggest of those being convenience. This is probably why Londoners favour public transport more than the rest of the country - they've got much more of it!
They probably only think of walking to the car, or from the pub to the car, or phone shop to car...
... and many of them resent parking any further from the door than possible, which is why we see pavements, double yellow lines, zig-zags, disabled spaces and so on used by lazy f..kers for parking.
But there is one police force is taking the issue seriously - see WMPRHRT on twitter.
Given the incrediby biased msm, the cycling result won't shock anybody, indeed, I'm quite surprised that it rated quite that highly. Of course all the people who hate it do so for two reasons; they don't do and it gets in the way of their car.
Nothing really shocking to see here.
We live in a car obsessed society hence the love of driving one copuled with a dislike of anything that is perceived to slow down cars such as bikes, buses and coaches.