Support road.cc

Like this site? Help us to make it better.

news

The average cyclist? Male, in his 40s, rides six times a week and 1,000 miles a year

Department for Transport releases its Cycling & Walking statistics for 2019 – the last edition before a coronavirus-led change?

The average cyclist in England is a fortysomething man who rides his bike six times a week and covers 1,000 miles a year, according to government statistics released today.

The Walking & Cycling Statistics, England: 2019 statistical release from the Department for Transport (DfT) also found that “the average number of miles cycled has generally increased over time, but the number of cycling stages [ie individual trips by bike] has remained flat over the same period.”

The data is drawn from the National Travel Survey, also published today and which covers the 2019 calendar year and is based on interviews with household members and a one week travel diary, and the Active Lives Survey, the latest edition of which covers the 12 months from mid-November 2018 to mid-November 2019.

Next year’s statistics, of course, are certain to paint a very different picture with the huge growth in cycling during lockdown which, while it may have died down somewhat as restrictions have been eased, will leave a legacy of more people cycling whether for exercise or daily journeys, especially if they are given safe infrastructure to encourage them to get in the saddle.

Of course, it’s far too early to say with confidence whether the snippets below truly represent a snapshot of how cycling in England was “before” the pandemic – though we’d hope that the 2020 figures will show some meaningful and positive change.

Back to 2019, and in England as a whole, 11 per cent of the adult population cycled once a week, although in a handful of local authority areas – 4 per cent of the total – 20 per cent or more adults did so.

As ever, Cambridge at 55.2 per cent followed by Oxford with 39.6 per cent led the way. Richmond-upon-Thames, meanwhile, remains the London borough with the highest proportion of adults riding their bikes at least once a week, on 26.8 per cent.

The lowest levels of cycling at least once a week were seen in Barking & Dagenham at just 3.5 per cent, one of three London boroughs in the bottom five, the others being Havering and Croydon, with Oldham and Dudley rounding off that list.

By age and gender, the highest proportion of once-a-week cyclists was found in males aged 17-20 – females in the same age group, by contrast, had the lowest levels of all bar women aged 70+.

Across both genders, the highest levels of cycling once a week or more was seen among the 40-49 age groups – though interestingly, while among men there was a steady rise through their 20s and 30s to hit that, participation levels among women were similar irrespective of whether they fell into the 21-29, 30-39 or 40-49 age groups.

We’ll have more detailed analysis of the statistics in the coming days here on road.cc.

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.

Add new comment

29 comments

Avatar
Steve_S_T | 3 years ago
0 likes

My immediate thought was the riding 6 times a week, no matter how far, is way above average for most of the country. It might be closer to the average if the survey was carried out more heavily in London, Cambridge, Oxford etc. As a countrywide, national average though 6 times a month feels more accurate, in my mind at least.

Avatar
mdavidford replied to Steve_S_T | 3 years ago
0 likes

Depends what it's an average of. If it only includes people who identify themselves as cyclists, that would probably exclude a lot of those who are only cycling 6 times a month to start with. Even if it only includes those who, say, cycled at least once in the last month, that would skew it considerably.

Anybody who commutes 5 days a week by bike is going to rack up 10 trips before you even factor in any leisure, shopping, etc., so if you assume* a normal distribution between them and those who only cycle now and again, then the average would come out around the 6 mark. (And that's before you throw in the outliers - the likes of cycle couriers, etc. who might be making several trips per day.) 

*Granted, that's rather a big assumption.

Avatar
mtb_roadtripper | 3 years ago
0 likes

Sounds like its "average man that owns and uses a bicycle" rather than "average cyclist". 

Definitely a distinction between humans with a bike and cyclists. 

For instance, when people complain that "cyclists ride down the pavement at speed"....no they dont. 

Avatar
brooksby replied to mtb_roadtripper | 3 years ago
0 likes

(face-palm) then no

Avatar
fukawitribe replied to mtb_roadtripper | 3 years ago
0 likes

So is that like the difference between "average man [sic] that owns and uses a motor vehicle" rather than "average motorist" ?

For instance, when people complain that "motorists drive down the road at excessive speed"....no they don't I guess ?

..or is it just a cyclist vs. human thing ...

Avatar
Chris Hayes | 3 years ago
0 likes

Hmmm....this is what averages do to stats... 1000/(52*6)= an average journey length of about 3.2 miles... 

I'm sure that '6*3.2miles 40-something cycling man' does exist, but the probability that they read a cycling website would be low...

Avatar
Awavey replied to Chris Hayes | 3 years ago
0 likes

I'm sure they do exist, I just dispute they represent the real 'average' cyclist, because I dont believe they collect anywhere near enough data to draw such a conclusion,as they themselves acknowledge by urging caution interpreting their data

Avatar
mdavidford replied to Awavey | 3 years ago
0 likes

Even if they were collecting sufficient data, I'm not sure the concept of an 'average cyclist' even really makes any sense. I suspect what they have is a series of averages - an average age, an average number of trips, an average distance, more men than women (which isn't really an 'average') - but that doesn't mean that all those averages are represented at once in one, or a group of, actual 'archetypal cyclists'. Even if there is someone that meets all of them, they might actually be quite atypical.

Avatar
Boofus | 3 years ago
0 likes

This is insulting. I'm 39. 

Avatar
Gary's bike channel | 3 years ago
0 likes

if i commuted to work and back, id be doing.....9000 miles a year maybe? its 19 miles on the back roads, 16 on the 60 mph one. Im not riding on that and up the spur road. No way.      During lockdown I was doing around 150 miles a week, riding 5 days a week or more. Now ive been back at work, ive only managed to do one 40 mile ride this month. Im too knackered mentally to get the bike out. Its pissing me off as i love cycling. If there was a safe cycling route alongside my work one id cycle 3 or 4 times a week, then use the sv the rest of the time. Saying that, does anybody know what the dutch do? if they had a 19 mile commute, would they still cycle it? or just drive part way, cycle the rest perhaps? 

Avatar
AlsoSomniloquism replied to Gary's bike channel | 3 years ago
1 like

Obviously I don't know your work but the ride might help mentally.

If you can maintain a steady average of 16mph on the backroads route, it would take you about 1h20min (I mentally Stava and addon stoppages) but you would definitely need shower facilities I would suspect. If still doable and acceptable travel times AND you can get back home or too work without driving, maybe think about alternating days. Cycle into work one morning, cycle home from work  the next afternoon and use other transport the other days. Obviously you would need secure cycle facilities at work to do this as well. 

Avatar
Gary's bike channel replied to AlsoSomniloquism | 3 years ago
0 likes

im basically working out of a shed on my own, so i could probably lock the bike up inside with me. shower is a no no. Could take wet wipes though. I may start doing three days motorbike, two days cycling. 

Avatar
ktache replied to Gary's bike channel | 3 years ago
0 likes

Any chance of breaking up your journey with a bit of a train ride.

I get to do this, though I am looking to move closer and just do the road/mostly off road ride.

Avatar
Awavey | 3 years ago
0 likes

I wouldnt worry about not fitting into this average cyclist dataset, as even the brief summary report cites there isnt always enough data collected from the surveys on cycling such that the results should be treated with caution and they average over more than one year

and I think Ive highlighted several times with this report the percentage increases/decreases they cite are often within their own accepted limits of no change. Which is why it also headlines things in the report with "The number of pedestrians killed or seriously injured has generally been decreasing" followed by the words underneath which say instead "although the trend in the last 5 years is broadly flat with a slight rise in the latest year."

It seems to be a report thats geared at tabloids or politicians to quote plausible soundbites from, but they just arent surveying enough people to get remotely meaningful figures, so Id expect next years report will almost certainly show little Covid impact.

Avatar
OldRidgeback | 3 years ago
0 likes

Well, neither myself nor my wife nor my sons fit the average cyclist model then. I'm not sure if that's good or bad.

We all ride more than that. And as for age...

Avatar
Steve K | 3 years ago
0 likes

Well, I'm male and in 2019 I was still in my 40s (alas no longer), but my mileage was about six times the 'average'.

Avatar
Organon | 3 years ago
0 likes

I ride further than that.

Avatar
Secret_squirrel replied to Tom_77 | 3 years ago
0 likes

From that link.

"spent about 7 minutes a week travelling by bike"

"cycled 54 miles". (in a year)

Avatar
jollygoodvelo | 3 years ago
3 likes

Six times a week, yet only 1000 miles a year?  An average of 3.2 miles per ride?

Something's not quite right there...

Avatar
brooksby replied to jollygoodvelo | 3 years ago
2 likes

I'm male, in my (late) forties, and mainly ride to commute.

About fifteen miles a day, five days a week.

So, I start at about 750 miles per year.  3000-3500 miles per year.  Add on 'recreational' cycling, shopping, etc, and I probably only creep up to 1,000. and it probably goes up to 4,000 miles - edited!

I imagine I'm pretty representative.

Avatar
Sedis replied to brooksby | 3 years ago
3 likes

Do you only commute 10 weeks a year?  

15 miles a day for 5 days is 75 miles, so this would take you over 3000 miles even taking into account holidays and the odd missed day

Avatar
brooksby replied to Sedis | 3 years ago
0 likes

Yeah, sorry about that - I got distracted! 

Avatar
EddyBerckx replied to brooksby | 3 years ago
2 likes

So you ride 75 miles per week commuting...say 40 weeks per year? That's 3000 miles alone. You calculations are a bit out?

Avatar
brooksby replied to EddyBerckx | 3 years ago
0 likes

.

Avatar
AlsoSomniloquism replied to EddyBerckx | 3 years ago
0 likes

Not this year unfortunately. 

Avatar
Rik Mayals unde... replied to brooksby | 3 years ago
1 like

I'm 54, cycle six days per week, five commuting and my weekend ride, so far this year I'm at 4300 miles, I would guess that I'm about average for someone who cycles six times a week. 

Avatar
Sriracha replied to jollygoodvelo | 3 years ago
2 likes

A whole lot depends on what they mean by 'average'; mean, median or mode? For the sex it has to be mode, you can't add up x males + y females and divide by x+y (although they do multiply of course...). But if they take the mean average of miles cycled you could end up with a meaningless (sorry) figure. A bit like when the 'average' salary at a small firm is £65k, when nobody makes over £25k, except the boss who rakes in several million.
It would be better if they tried to discern the 'typical' cyclist, but of course maybe they are all just quite different and no 'typical' emerges.

Avatar
Tom_77 replied to jollygoodvelo | 3 years ago
2 likes

jollygoodvelo wrote:

Six times a week, yet only 1000 miles a year?  An average of 3.2 miles per ride?

Something's not quite right there...

I used to cycle 3 miles each way to the train station, 2 or 3 days per week to get to work. I think that's fairly typical of people who cycle for transport.

Latest Comments