New data from Transport for London (TfL) has showed a huge increase in the proportion of journeys made on foot and by cycle during the pandemic.

The TfL report revealed the proportion of journeys walked and cycled increased from 23.3 per cent in 2019, to 33.4 per cent in 2020.

While cycling journeys during weekends in 2020 were regularly double those of 2019, highlighting the vital role played by walking and cycling during the coronavirus pandemic in the capital.

TfL's Travel in London report uses data gathered from travel surveys to calculate the number of trips made on each mode of transport in London.

While the total number of trips made in 2020 decreased dramatically as a result of the pandemic, the number of journeys cycled increased by 6.4 per cent, a remarkable change in the context of lower general activity and major reductions to workplace commuting.

This meant that over the year, the proportion of journeys cycled accounted for 3.4 per cent of all journeys, up from 2.3 per cent in 2019 – a 48 per cent increase in the proportion of journeys made by bike.

There was also a significant increase in the number of trips walked in London in 2020, with the proportion of journeys made on foot by Londoners increasing from 21 per cent of all journeys to 30 per cent – a 43 per cent increase.

Data from TfL's network of cycle counters also suggests that leisure cycling in particular has boomed since the start of the pandemic, with the number of journeys at weekends regularly double those of equivalent weekends in previous years.

advertisement

Growth in cycling during 2020 was particularly strong in outer London, rising by 24.4 per cent.

TfL has recently started work on an extension to a major new Cycleway in west London as construction work has started to transform the Hammersmith Gyratory.

30 per cent of people said that they are likely to walk more after the pandemic, compared to 10 per cent who believed they will walk less. Meanwhile, 15 per cent of people stated that they would cycle more after the pandemic.

The report also highlights the role played by Santander Cycles throughout the pandemic, with the scheme seeing record numbers of casual users throughout the pandemic and particularly as Londoners returned to offices in the centre of the capital.

September, October and November this year were all record months for the scheme, with September and October both seeing more than one million hires over the month.

Since the period covered by the report, bus and tube figures up to November 2021 show that public transport usage has continued to grow as Covid restrictions have been eased.

Compared to before the pandemic, the Tube network on weekdays has recently seen more than 60 per cent of journeys, but this has reached as high as 80 per cent at weekends, while ridership on buses was regularly at 75 per cent of pre-pandemic levels.

Overall TfL figures up to November 2021 indicate that use of London's public transport network was at around 70 per cent of pre-pandemic levels and that millions of Londoners were returning to the transport network.