Cycling campaigners in Lancaster have questioned a claim that the city is the most bike-friendly one in the UK – an accolade bestowed on it by a firm of solicitors which ranked 39 cities on a number of criteria.

Personal injury specialists True Solicitors put Lancaster ahead of Exeter at the top of its ranking, with Bradford, Brighton & Hove and Swansea also making the top five.

London was ranked bottom, with Manchester above, despite the cities both being committed to growing cycling through building dedicated infrastructure, with the bottom five also comprising Peterborough, Leeds and Wolverhampton.

The law firm scored the cities on a scale of 1-5 on five criteria – “bicycle theft reports, cost of public transport, air quality, cycling statistics and road traffic accidents.” The combined score was then used to compile the ranking.

Granted, any attempt to rank cities based on their perceived bike-friendliness is bound to involve a degree of subjectivity, but even so some of the methodology employed seems questionable, not too mention issues such as existing or planned infrastructure or local initiatives to encourage cycling.

Cambridge, for example, was dragged down by bike thefts, whereas Bradford scored well on that aspect – but of course, the sheer number of bicycles in the former makes them an attractive target for thieves.

Road traffic casualties, meanwhile, seem to have been assessed based on all road users before being translated to a rate per head of population – something that hit London’s score, as did the cost of public transport (national rail and the Underground, perhaps, buses and the Overground, less so).

The solicitors behind the research highlighted that both Lancaster and Exeter were among “the original locations picked to promote cycling in 2005.”

While true – they were two of the cycling demonstration towns that benefited from government funding back then – that initiative ended when Cycling England was unceremoniously tossed by Eric Pickles on the coalition’s ‘Bonfire of the Quangos’ a decade ago.

In a letter to the Lancaster Guardian, Dick Fellows of local cycling campaign group Dynamo queried the city topping the list.

“Lancaster has been named the most-bike friendly city in the UK according to a survey by True solicitors,” he wrote.

“If only this were true! Then Dynamo, Lancaster and District cycle campaign group, after 25 years’ cycle campaigning could pack up and its members work on some other cause where progress was a little more forthcoming than in cycle campaigning.”

Such rankings, of course, are typically drawn up and sent out to the press to provide a talking point and get exposure for the firm behind them – job done in this case, then.

Pointing out that a number of similar surveys have been published recently and observing that “other than the True survey none put Lancaster in the top spot or even mentioned our city,” Mr Fellows questioned the methodology used and the source of the statistics used to compile the ranking.

“We also must ask whether True had people cycle round the district, and if so for how long, and on which routes,” he continued.

“For there is no better way to get a feel for a safe cycle city than to ride round it regularly, at all times of the day and in all weathers just as most Dynamo members do.

“And the story they tell will not be that it is a really safe city to cycle round.”

He acknowledged that on the canal towpath or the Lune Path from Morecambe to Halton, “it does feel safe,” but the opposite applied on other routes including the main one into and out of Lancaster, the A6.

“Dynamo’s regular surveys of the public show there is a large, suppressed demand for cycling and that by far the most common reason for not cycling is that it looks dangerous,” he added.

“A typical comment is that, it would be great if the kids could cycle to school but it’s just not safe.

“Dynamo believes that we really do need safe, protected cycle routes to all our schools both primary and secondary as well as to our major workplaces such as the hospitals and the universities.”