Thursday 24 June 2010

New figures from the Department for Transport

The number of miles travelled by cycles in 2009 was up from 2,920 million to 3,078 million - a rise of 4.4% in the last year according to the Department for Transport, and 5.4% according to me. There have been a few ups and downs in the figures over recent years, but underlying the fluctuations there seems to have been a fairly steady rise for about the last eight years, and the total miles travelled by bike is back to a level that was last seen in the early 90's.

2009 was the first time that cycles have accounted for more than 1% of the total distance travelled on the roads since 1993. Bikes covered almost as many miles as motorbikes and almost as many as buses and coaches.

Around 20% of the distance covered by cycles was on rural roads, and 80% on urban roads.

DfT have also released some accident statistics. Total casualties among cyclists increased by 5% - roughly in proportion to the distance cycled. But accidents were less serious - the number of cyclists killed fell 10% from 115 to 104. but the number seriously injured rose 6%. There seems to have been a particularly big drop in the number of serious accidents involving children on bikes.

The data is here and here. There is a CTC press release about it all here.

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