One wouldn't be wrong in thinking that it is a business commuter / touristy thing predominantly. From the feasibility study page 44:
2.1 Differences between central London and Paris
164.
London Analytics was commissioned to look at the elements of the Parisian success from the demand analysis point of view. Paris was selected as it is the biggest scheme currently in operation. Also the city of Paris shares some characteristic with London as a ‘world city’ (similar population, number of visitors, public transport provision, etc).
The findings were then compared to the study area in London
165.
The main differences between the study in London and the existing scheme in Paris are as follows:
- Smaller deployment area – 40 km2 in London compared with 87 km2 in Paris
- Lower population within the deployment area – 400,000 in London compared with 6,500,000 in Paris
- Lower population density – 12,000 people per km2 in central London compared to 24,000 in Paris
- Fewer trips are made by the inhabitants of the metropolitan area – 815,000 (Zone 1 to Zone 1) in London compared to 6.5 million in Paris.
- Fewer trips above 1km – 256,000 trips in London compared to 3.25 million in Paris (average weekday)
- Higher cycling mode share in Central London (increase of 86 per cent since 2000 in London compared to 46 per cent in Paris in the same period up to the introduction of Vélib’)
- Much greater employment density in London than Paris. Paris has 1.6 million jobs with a density of 18,390 jobs per km2 – London has 1.53 millions jobs with density 45,000 jobs per km2. By 2025 London is expected to have 1.89 million jobs with a density of 55,588 jobs per km2
166.
The observed uptake in Paris is around three per cent (including trips by tourists and visitors). Of all existing trips, three per cent are made by cycle hire. The majority of these trips are made by residents within the deployment zone (the Boulevard Périphérique)
167.
Based only on trips made by residents London has fewer potential trips than Paris, resulting in a possible lower predicted usage of cycle hire. However, in addition to resident trips, many thousands of trips in London will be made by tourists, business visitors and rail commuters
2.2 Tourists and visitors
168.
London has a significant number of visitors and tourists – 26 million a year in greater London (compared to 15 million in Paris). They also stay longer with an average length of stay of 4.6 nights (compared to 2.1 nights in Paris).
169.
Based on tourist and visitor data from the London boroughs, it has been assumed that 75 per cent of trips are made in central London. For example, even if a tourist or a visitor stays in Outer London they are likely to travel into central London for some of their stay. Many tourists will stay (and make trips) within central London for the entirety of their stay
170.
Assuming a conservative rate of three trips per day and a trip length distribution profile similar to that of trips made by residents (around 30 per cent of trips are longer than 1km) this gives an estimated 230,000 daily trips of more than 1km by tourists and visitors to London
171.
The calculation is as follows: 26 million visitors and tourists a year equates to around 71,233 arriving daily. Each staying 4.6 days and undertaking three trips per day equates to around 983,000 daily trips. Of these, 75 per cent are undertaken in central London and around 31 per cent are of more than 1 km. This equates to 230,000 daily trips of more than 1 km by visitors and tourists to London
2.3 The after rail market and additional business trips
172.
Around 522,000 trips terminate in central London at National Rail stations, most of which take place in the morning peak. The busiest eight stations produce approximately 300,000 trips, for which the journey between the station and the final destination, within Zone 1, is in the range 1km–8km (LATS 2001)
173.
LATS data indicates that the average Zone 1 commuter makes 0.56 trips per day in Zone 1 (in addition to their journeys to and from Zone 1). Commuters coming from outside the greater London (not included in LATS) area are bound to make additional trip throughout the day, in addition to their journey to and from work
174.
If we assume same travel patterns, 58 per cent of the 522,000 trips terminating at a central London National Rail station would make 0.56 additional trips throughout the day. This equates to 168,000 additional journeys during the working day. This figure is used in table 2.5.1 to estimate total demand
