Forget carriages, Hackney is bike-powered!

A UK wide comparison of journeys to work by bike shows that London boroughs lead the country in growth terms.

Hackney, beat districts like Cambridge and Bristol, to show the highest increase in cycling to work from 1991 to 2001. In 2001 the proportionof journeys to work by bike in Hackney was 6.83 percent – an increase of almost 70 percent from the proportion in 1991 (4.03 percent) and more than 150 percent from 1981 (2.56 percent).

The Inner London boroughs of Islington, Hammersmith & Fulham, Lambeth, Camden, Wandsworth and Southwark are all in the UK top 14 in terms of the increase in cycling. The data comes from a new study by John Parkin of the Bolton Institute, and is based on the 1981, 1991 and 2001 censuses.

Cambridge remains the UK district with the greatest amount of cycling (28.34 percent of journeys to work), but in terms of growth it loses out to Hackney.

Recent data from Transport for London shows that cycling in the Central London area grew by 74 percent from 1993 – 2002. There’s been a further increase of 16 percent in cycling into the congestion charge zone, which lies within the central area, since the charge was introduced.

CYCLE USE GROWTH 1991 – 2001:

Hackney 2.81%

Cambridge 2.28%

Bristol: City of UA 1.64%

Islington 1.63%

Reading UA 1.61%

Hamm & Fulham 1.41%

Lambeth 1.41%

Exeter 1.40%

Camden 1.32%

Oswestry 1.19%

Brighton UA 1.15%

Wandsworth 1.14%

Southwark 1.10%

Nottingham 1.00%

Source: John Parkin, Bolton Institute Comparisons of cycle use for the journey to work from the ’81, ’91 and 2001 censuses. Traffic Engineering and Control, September 2003.