Cycling journeys up 40 per cent since the start of the pandemic
(Picture: PA Archive)Post-pandemic working patterns have seen the rise of “mellow Mondays” as people work from home at the start of the week, cycling data suggests today.
Strava, the walking, cycling and running app, said changes in travel patterns that began during the Covid lockdowns had permanently changed how people moved in and around cities.
Tom Knights, head of Strava Metro in Britain, said a “mellow Monday” drop in travel could be detected by comparing millions of activities logged by users.
“Tuesday is essentially the most popular day for cycling commuters, with more working from home on a Monday as part of a new office norm,” he said.
Strava’s annual year in sport report reveals that London cycle commuters are early birds who start their ride to work at around 7am — an hour earlier than those in New York and Paris.
It also shows the growth in popularity of e-bikes, with the number of Strava users on a battery-powered bike up 26 per cent year-on-year.
E-bikes were more likely than conventional bikes to be used for a ride to work, and they were more popular with older riders.
Strava, which allows users to log their journeys and training sessions and compare their times with others, regards itself as the world’s largest active travel database.
Organisations such as Transport for London, Active Travel England and London borough councils are able to use its anonymised data free of charge to examine travel patterns down to street level and time of day.
Last week Transport for London said the number of cycling journeys was up 40 per cent since the start of the pandemic, though they number only about four per cent of all daily trips in the capital.
The Strava data found a nine per cent annual increase in cycling commutes in London, behind Liverpool on 10 per cent.
Cycle superhighway seven, which links Colliers Wood and the City via Tooting and Oval, was one of the most popular commuting corridors.
Mr Knights said London cyclists were willing to pay a “distance tax” — namely, to ride a less direct route — if it meant they could travel on safer, protected cycle lanes.
Conversely, Kensington High Street, where cycle lanes were axed by the council in December 2020, had seen a reduction in journeys.
The number of Strava riders on Kensington High Street fell by seven per cent in 2020-21 and by a further three per cent in 2021/22, he said.
Cycle campaigners will have their application for a judicial review of Kensington and Chelsea council’s decision to axe the cycle lanes heard by the High Court on Thursday.
Strava estimates 17 per cent of adults in Britain use its app, meaning between 500,000 and a million cycle trips are logged daily.
In London, total commutes logged by women were 58 per cent higher this year than in 2019, but two per cent lower for men.
Nearly six times as many rides were recorded in London than in any other UK city. But Manchester, which came second, had more rides per head of population.
