Is the so-called boom in cycling largely illusory?
I reckon it is in my patch of the north east - Tyne and Wear and County Durham.
There are no more cyclists now than when I returned to cycling about four years ago.
I use the C2C path a lot, which as a key national challenge route, one might expect to be busy both with locals and those doing the full ride.
Routinely, I can trundle up it for eight or 10 miles and only meet a handful of cyclists - and sometimes none - coming the other way.
My mate Chris has a good handle on this, he rides most days and manages my local bike shop.
He told me he sees fewer cyclists on his travels, and most of the shop's customers are regulars who have been using the place on and off for years.
I've less of a handle on roadie numbers, the handful of local clubs seem to survive OK, and there has been a couple of new ones open in the last few years, so that might indicate a small increase.
The guy who runs the bike shop in Leyburn, north Yorkshire, told me he saw a blip just after Le Tour, but most of those new roadies no longer ride, so he's back to his core of mountain bikers.
That there London is an exception,
@ianrauk posted a report saying there are now more cyclists on Blackfriars Bridge than car drivers.
When I cycled a bit in the West End in the 1980s, it was me - on my Raleigh Marauder - a few couriers, but not many others.
Sales figures from
Halfords - down - give a good indication of the national picture.
So apart from London, I reckon there are fewer cyclists compared to four or five years ago.
What are numbers like in your area?
). Compare that to neighbouring boroughs Blackburn and Accrington where the "proper" cyclists are few and far between.
