Official Statistics

Cycling traffic index, England

Updated 5 December 2024

Applies to England

© Crown copyright 2024

This publication is licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0 except where otherwise stated. To view this licence, visit nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3 or write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gov.uk.

Where we have identified any third party copyright information you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned.

This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/cycling-index-england/cycling-index-england

About this release

This statistical release presents an estimate for changes in cycling traffic levels in England, up to September 2024. These statistics are produced from the Department for Transport (DfT) automatic traffic cycle counters (ATCs). These are official statistics. For more information, see the About these statistics section.

Future publication dates will be announced in advance on DfT’s statistical release calendar.

Please see the accompanying frequently asked questions for further details.

Cycling is defined as any cycling journey taking place on the public highway and the paths next to them.

Motor traffic refers to road traffic by all vehicles except for pedal cycles.

Main findings

The data is published as a rolling annual index, referenced to a 2013 baseline, from the date which consistent data is available.

In the year ending September 2024, the latest provisional data shows that cycling traffic levels have:

  • increased by 9.4% since the year ending December 2013

  • decreased by 1.9% compared to pre-pandemic levels (year ending December 2019)

  • decreased by 2.6% since the previous year (year ending September 2023)

  • decreased by 32.8% since the peak in the series (year ending March 2021)

In the year ending March 2021:

  • cycling traffic peaked (Chart 1), increasing by 62.8% since the year ending December 2013

  • COVID-19 pandemic restrictions were in place and will have impacted cycling behaviour and travel patterns across England

In comparison, provisional road traffic estimates show that motor traffic levels have:

  • decreased by 1.5% compared to pre-pandemic levels (year ending December 2019)
  • increased by 1.4% compared to the previous year (year ending September 2023)

Table 1: Summary of changes in cycling traffic levels in the year ending September 2024

Change from Last year Pre-pandemic 10 years ago
Year ending               September 2023              December 2019                      September 2014                  
 Percentage change                            -2.6% -1.9% 1.3%

Data for 2024 are provisional until publication of the final annual road traffic estimates.

Chart 1: Cycling traffic levels in England, to September 2024

Note that the figures up to December 2023 in Chart 1 are based on final road traffic estimates. These are derived using the same methodology as motor vehicle traffic estimates, using a combination of roadside traffic survey and automatic traffic counter data. The figures for 2024 are provisional and derived from changes in cycling traffic levels observed at automatic traffic counters. The data for 2024 will remain provisional until they have been constrained by the final annual road traffic estimates. Please see the background section for more information.

The cycling traffic index is produced using a rolling annual index. Due to this, the impact of legal restrictions relating to the COVID-19 pandemic continue to influence the cycling traffic levels for 12 months following the lifting of restrictions in February 2022.

Find the related data shown in this chart on the cycling traffic index statistics page.

What can this data be used for? 

The data can be used to:

  • estimate cycling traffic levels in England against a baseline level in 2013

  • compare cycling traffic levels in England against a previous year or a previous month

  • compare changes in cycling traffic levels to changes in levels of motor vehicle traffic

  • assess longer-term trends in cycling traffic levels (for example, an increase in cycling traffic levels compared to 2015)

  • analyse changes in cycling traffic levels beyond those caused by factors such as the weather

This data cannot be used:

  • to estimate the total number or volume of people cycling in England

  • as a comparator with other data sources published on active travel

  • to compare with other countries or across local authorities in the UK

  • to understand reasons why cycling traffic levels have increased or decreased over certain time periods (with the exception of COVID-19)

Background information

This statistical series has been developed by DfT to allow robust, long-term monitoring of cycling traffic trends in England. This index replaces the cycling series published as part of the domestic transport usage by mode. Further details on this statistical release and the difference from the previous series can be found in the accompanying frequently answered questions document.

This index is less impacted by factors that commonly influence cycling data, especially at a granular daily level, such as seasonality and weather, allowing us to look at changes beyond these factors. This is because numbers represent cycling during a 12 month ‘rolling annual’ period, helping to smooth out large differences between months caused by seasonality and weather impacts. This means it is easier to see changes caused by other factors, such as the large increase in cycling during the pandemic. The new methodology has been designed to be able to accommodate additional traffic sensor data from a wider range of locations and sources as they become available to the Department.

Data source

Automatic Traffic Counters (ATCs)

Traffic flow data is collected continuously from DfT’s network of ATCs. In addition to counting road traffic in each direction, the ATCs record some physical properties of passing vehicles which are used to classify traffic by type, including cycles. ATCs operate across a range of road types and geographical regions, with the intended purpose to estimate traffic flow.

These ATCs are based on a nationally representative sample of the road network across Great Britain. The numbers of ATCs that contribute to estimating traffic flows has increased year-on-year to reflect the growing network of traffic counters that can now record cycling traffic levels. In 2024, over 200 cycling sensors were used to produce these statistics. The cycling traffic index methodology is designed to deal with changes in the number of counters providing data. Therefore, changes in the index will reflect actual changes in cycling traffic levels rather than a change in the number of counters.

Annual road traffic estimates

The Department for Transport publishes annual estimates of road traffic in Great Britain. Road traffic estimates from the previous year are used alongside data collected from ATCs to calculate the provisional cycling traffic indices for the latest year. The latest annual statistics, and previous releases and further information on ATCs can be found on the road traffic statistics page.

Methodology

The provisional cycle traffic index for each month of the latest calendar year is calculated using data from automatic traffic counters (ATCs). This data measures monthly changes in cycling traffic compared to the previous year. These monthly changes are then multiplied by the previous year’s final annual estimates to produce a provisional index of cycling traffic changes across England.

The final indices for previous years are more comprehensive, incorporating data from over 6,000 manual traffic counts, nationally representative by region and road classification, alongside ATC data. Indices for the latest year remain provisional until they are adjusted to align with the final annual estimates calculated each year.

While provisional indices provide a high-level view of cycling traffic trends, final annual traffic estimates offer more detailed insights, including regional traffic levels, which cannot be derived from the provisional data alone. More information about the final annual estimates can be found in the annual road traffic estimates methodology note. Alongside the annual publication, a supplementary website provides the underlying road link level data collected to produce the summary estimates.

Data quality

Raw ATC data goes through an automatic and manual validation check. Flows that fail the validation test are removed and replacement values are imputed where necessary.
The ATCs used as the data source in this publication classify vehicles based on the information captured by the sensors, such as vehicle length. This creates the possibility for misclassification of vehicles with atypical characteristics, meaning that provisional indices are less robust than the final indices. The classification algorithms are continually developed to ensure that vehicle classification is as accurate as possible.

Due to the methodology used to produce the provisional cycling traffic index, figures are subject to revision. However, these revisions are typically minor and will not affect qualitative patterns in the data.

Accompanying cycling traffic index data table

The cycling traffic index data table is available on the cycling traffic index statistics data page.

Frequently asked questions

Further details on this statistical series can be found in our accompanying frequently asked questions document.

About these statistics

These statistics are official statistics. They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality, and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics.

Further information about active travel statistics as well as other sources of data are available, including:

Information on Official Statistics is available via the UK Statistics Authority website.

Instructions for printing and saving

Depending on which browser you use and the type of device you use (such as a mobile or laptop) these instructions may vary.

You will find your print and save options in your browser’s menu. You may also have other options available on your device. Tablets and mobile device instructions will be specific to the make and model of the device.

Select Ctrl and F on a Windows laptop or Command and F on a Mac.

This will open a search box in the top right-hand corner of the page. Type the word you are looking for in the search bar and press enter.

Your browser will highlight the word, usually in yellow, wherever it appears on the page. Press enter to move to the next place it appears.

To hear more about DfT statistical publications as they are released, follow us on X at DfTstats.

Back to top