London cyclists are worried, says report — except the ones who aren't

The reason short commutes may be more anxiety inducing is they often have less choice of route, I had a 1.5 mile commute in SW London and the only realistic route, especially in winter was along a congested main road with zero cycle provision. I now have a longer commute and about 3 choices of route and I take the longest and quietest! The only anxiety being induced by roundabouts and those pinch points that were discussed last week.
And as pointed out the shorter the commute generally the less experienced person on a bike and they tend to stick to the routes they know which are often the ones they use in their cars. My current long route to work exploits several shared paths that make it impossible to drive the route, when I describe it to people they often surprised that even it exists

I ride every week within the M25, in the city and the outskirts. Always I take care. If I am doing everything right - then what every happens must be someone else's fault. I cannot and will not change my love of riding on the off chance that a random moron will cause us to have an accident.
I love riding in London, beautiful things are there to be seen and experienced. Yes there are idiots but you have them outside of London as well. Hell; I used to live and ride in Peterborough - was knocked into oncoming traffic by a knob leaving a garage forecourt. ( I was okay bar a twisted ankle )
anxiety is a negative, cycling is a stronger positive. I'll keep riding and keep happy.

Stay safe out there all.

30 minutes by bus? That means they live 10 minutes walk away by London traffic standards. No wonder they're happy.

The only times I enjoy riding my road bike within London are early on Saturday morning (before 9am) and on Sunday morning before 11am.

Beyond these times the roads are full of traffic.

Monday-Friday are write offs for pleasant riding, due to sheer volume of traffic.

If you cycle along tower hill/upper Thames Street, embankment, Vauxhaul gyratory or park lane (to name but a few) I could understand how the tube might be more pleasant !
Time of Day could be a factor too as if you're on the road around 6 am the roads are far quieter and there are fewer impatient tools out and about.

The 'unrepresentative' data seems to back up my experience. The current 45km London commute is much more pleasurable than the 10km I used to do.

hampsted bandit and Gizmo make good points. But maybe it's just the sheer satisfaction that comes from riding a longer distance?

As for tube commuters being the happiest, wow, let's see if you could break out a smile now and again?

The point someone raised about shorter rides corresponding to proportionally more central/busier journeys is something I find interesting. From my experience of cycling in London, the closer you get to the centre, the less the environment provides any of the qualities that can make riding a bike beneficial and pleasant.

Obviously, it's generally more hectic, and there become more things that can kill you from more directions, but also - due to traffic lights, congestion, etc. - the rhythm of getting around is ludicrously erratic. I can't remember the last time I saw anyone in Central London actually sitting on their bicycle. People are either stood awkwardly behind cars or lights, or sprinting for all their might to match the acceleration of the motor vehicles that define the flow of traffic through sheer bulk.

If I am to find a bicycle ride pleasant and relaxing, then it must be predictable, consistent, at my own pace, and generally not require me to have my systems of 'self defence' or 'evasive action' on standby, let alone actually in use.

Ride for 45 minutes, and chances are you'll at least be somewhere that isn't Central London for the bulk of it. I think that's enough to reduce anyone's anxiety levels significantly.

For eight years I commuted from Camden to Vauxhall. I tried various variations but all routes were very busy, stressful and frankly unpleasant.

However the ±20 mins cycle was much less stressful than the few times I did the journey by Tube (45 mins); or the even fewer times I actually drove: that was an hour of hell.

My commute takes me through a couple of parks in the morning, with only one short section of narrow road where vehicle speeds can be high.

The return trip would be just as good if the parks were still open. I do have to cope with a slightly longer stretch of busy road an impatient motorists.

This contrasts strongly with my old commute, along very busy roads and a longer distance. But I still liked that as I found a couple of back routes to avoid the worst bits. Even using that route I wasn't anxious.

As above, a pretty useless report as it stands but raising lots of points that bear investigation.

My hypothesis would be that commutes over a given distance are self-selecting: inexperienced and low-confidence cyclists won't attempt a commute of 45 minutes or more, so the only people who do this are the people who are calm and happy about it.

My commute is back roads and Bushy Park stressful it's not.

I can only compare my own, recent experiences of 2 very different commutes

My previous commute when I worked at Sigma Sport in Hampton Wick took from my home in NW1 (Camden) through the back streets of West London, out across Hammersmith bridge, through Roehampton into Richmond Park and through Kingston

The distance every day was a problem (taking 50-55 minutes), but the actual commute was quite pleasant, especially once across Hammersmith bridge (this was my half way point). The traffic was rarely a problem as I had use of protected bus lanes and back streets. I had no incidents in 7 months of commuting.

My current commute takes me from my home in NW1 (Camden) through Kings Cross, up over Angel, down through Shoreditch, along Commercial Road and into the Docklands.

Its a shorter commute (30-35 minutes) but in much heavier traffic.

I've tried different combinations of routes and different directions, but they take much too long, and you are stuck in heavy local traffic on crowded streets.

I'd say I am more concerned about my safety on this current commute. I would not say anxiety, as I have been riding bikes for 30+ years and commuting in London for 15+ of those years.

Since starting this commute in June 2014, I have seen a number of road traffic collisions, ridden into areas where road traffic collisions have occured (broken glass / blood / emergency services) had more near misses with cars jumping lights / doing dodgy things, and last week crashed hard at Kings Cross after a pedestrian walked into the road.

My conclusion is that a longer commute coming into a City, can perhaps be safer and less stressful, than a shorter commute where you have to punch through the centre of a City.

I love a bit of data.

It's worth taking a few minutes to look at the report itself. Only then can you appreciate how completely pointless it is. No demographic separation, it doesn't even distinguish between journeys in inner and outer London. It's a fine example of a completely useless data point, I may use it as an example of such in the future.