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We’re still building up our database of facts and figures, and will publish more statistics in the near future. 

 

If you’re looking for a particular fact or figure and can’t find it below, don’t hesitate to send us an email and we’ll help you out.

Bicycle Usage

Capital Cities

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EU Capitals                          Cycling modal share Year                  
Copenhagen 49% 2018
Amsterdam 35% 2017
Berlin 13% 2013
Ljubjana 13% 2018
Helsinki 14% 2019
Zagreb 10.1% 2012
Dublin  10% 2017
Stockholm 9% 2013
Vienna 7% 2017
Paris 5% 2019
Riga  4% 2014
Brussels  4% 2014
Luxembourg 3,5% 2011
Sofia  3% 2010
Nicosia 2% 2010
Athens 2% 2005
Budapest 2% 2014
Bratislava 2% 2012
London 2% 2009
Prague 1% 2013
Tallinn 1% 2012
Vilnius 1% 2010
Warsaw 1% 2009
Lisbon 1% 2013
Bucharest 1% 2007
Rome 0.6% 2012
Madrid 0% 2011

 

Topic: mode of transport, Topic: modal share, Topic: urban mobility

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Children

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Across the globe, the percentage of children that walk or cycle to school has decreased from 82% to
14% within the last 30 years.

Source: McDonald, N.C. 2012, Children and cycling, p235-257 in Cycling City, Pucher, J. and Buehler, R. 2012, City cycling, MIT, Cambridge, MA. 

Topic: mode of transport

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General

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The graph below shows the evolution of the percentage of people who answered “cycling” to the question of the Eurobarometer: “On a typical day, which mode of transport do you most often?”

EB

Source:

Flash Eurobarometer 206b, Attitudes on issues related to EU Transport Policy, 2007
Flash Eurobarometer 312, Future of transport, 2011 (figures of 2010)
Special Eurobarometer 422a, Quality of transport, 2014
Topic: mode of transport, Topic: urban mobility, Topic: Intermodality

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Safety

Helmet Legislation

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Drivers overtaking cyclists passed an average of 8.5 cm closer to those wearing helmets. Source.

When Australia introduced mandatory cycle helmet law, bicycle usage dropped by 30%. Source.

The relationship between the number of cyclists and the number of casualties among cyclists involved in car accident is inverse. (The more cyclists, the less accidents among them). Source:  Hydén, C., A. Nilson & R. Risser (1998), WALCYNG. How to enhance WALking and CYcliNG instead of shorter car trips and make these modes safer. European Commission: WALCYNG

Topic: helmet, Topic: Road safety

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Safety In Numbers

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Countries with the lowest levels of cycle use have the poorest cyclist safety records. Source.

In a study of 115 cities in the US and Denmark, as well in 14 European countries, it was found that motorists are less likely to hit cyclists and pedestrians when there are more people cycling or walking.  It appears that motorists adjust their behaviour in the presence of people cycling. Source.

The relationship between the number of cyclists and the number of casualties among cyclists involved in car accident is inverse. (The more cyclists, the less accidents among them).

Source: Hydén, C., A. Nilson & R. Risser (1998), WALCYNG. How to enhance WALking and CYcliNG instead of shorter car trips and make these modes safer. European Commission: WALCYNG.

For more info – ECF Factsheet – safety in numbers

Topic: Road safety

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General safety

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Cycling isn’t as risky as commonly thought, with just one death every 32 million kilometres – that’s over 800 times around the world. Source.

Topic: Road safety

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Popularity

ECF Cycling barometer

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Denmark advocates conquer the first place in spite of Netherlands supremacy on cycling use.

Flickr/ECF

Flickr/ECF

 

Good cycling policy requires good data

“In God we trust, everyone else must bring data” This iconic quote from the former mayor of New-York summarizes perfectly the challenges of today policy decision making. In terms of cycling the challenge is enormous: there is no reliable and updated data on cycling at the national level across the EU. Comparing European countries and the state of their cycling across numerous fields is still a tricky task today, even within the European Union. Different national statistics and lack of data collection make it hard to be certain about the cycling record of each country. In light of this, the ECF Cycling Barometer has taken five verifiable EU-wide surveys and therefore eliminated different treatments given to cycling in EU member states. The countries are then given points according to their rank in each field and all points are summed to get a final score.

The objective

After two years ECF has decided to take a look at how things have changed since 2013 and what could be seen from the new data available, with Croatia –the newest member of the EU – included as well. “The ECF Barometer was built as a talking point to raise awareness on the need to get good cycling data. It was a big success last time so we hope to see the discussion continue again this year” says Chloé Mispelon, ECF project leader for the barometer. Indeed, in the last two years the European Commission published two Flash Eurobarometers including cycling data. That’s more than in the 5 previous years.

The results

Like in 2013, Denmark and the Netherlands once again come out on top, with the same  four countries following close behind: Sweden, Finland, Germany, and Belgium. Slovenia jumped the most ranks to 7th place, surpassing countries like the UK and France. Luxembourg also leapt forward, most likely due to a good cycling fatalities record and great cycling advocate numbers/population. Spain jumped forward mainly due to improvement in all five criteria. Some countries have more or less maintained their relative positions – like Hungary, Austria, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic – and similarly to 2013 countries in the South and East of Europe still show a lot of room for improvement. One disappointment in this year’s barometer is the bad score for Ireland, despite great cycling developments in Dublin, as they went down in ranking due to the cycling use criteria.

Rank Country Rank Country Rank Country Rank Country
1 Denmark 8 Hungary 15 Lithuania 21= Ireland
2 Netherlands 9 Austria 16 Croatia 21= Latvia
3 Sweden 10 Slovakia 17 Italy 24= Greece
4 Finland 11 UK 18 Spain 24= Malta
5 Germany 12 France 19 Estonia 26 Cyprus
6 Belgium 13 Luxembourg 20 Poland 27 Portugal
7 Slovenia 14 Czech Republic 21= Bulgaria 28 Romania

Comparison with 2013 Barometer

ECF Cycling Barometer content

Infographics and photographs can be found here

Press contact

Maria Gaton m.gaton@ecf.com / +32-2-880-9274

Topic: Cycling Barometer, Topic: ECF

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Bike Sharing

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By the begining of 2012, they were 400 bike sharing schemes globally.

Velib’, the Parisian bike sharing scheme, launched in 2007, now has 20 000 bicycles and 1800 bike stations (one every 300 m). They are 40 000- 120 000 bike trips done every day using Velib’.

For more information on bike sharing schemes:

ECF – factsheet – The rise of bike sharing schemes

Topic: Bike sharing

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Cargo Bikes - Cycle Logistics

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25% of all urban goods could be delivered by bicycle. This figure rises to 50% when we are refering to light goods. Source.

Topic: CYCLElogistics, Topic: cargo bikes, Topic: urban mobility

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Sales

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Source: European Bicycle Market 2010 Edition, COLIBI-COLIPED
Topic: Economy

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Benefits

Economic

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Cycling is good for the rural economy. A visiting cyclist spends an average of £25/day on locally provided food and services, compared to car-borne visitor’s £7.30. Car users bring what they’ll need with them, whereas cyclists can’t. Because of the exercise: cyclists feel hungrier when they stop and that they’ve earned the right to pamper themselves. Source.

Topic: Economic benefits

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Environmental

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When the complete life cycle of the following modes are taken into account, the carbon emissions are approximately:

  • Bicycle: 21 g CO2/passenger/km traveled
  • Electric-assist bicycle: 22 g CO2/passenger/km traveled
  • Passenger car: 271 g CO2/passenger/km traveled
  • Bus: 101 CO2/passenger/km traveled

Source.

A bicycle commuter who rides 8 Km to work, four days a week, avoids 3220 Km of driving a year, the equivalent of 380 L of gasoline saved and 750Kg of CO2 emissions avoided. Source: 1 and 2.

 

Use our CO2 calculator to see how CO2 a journey will emit. Choose your vehicle, indicate your distance in Km and see how much CO2 is emitted for this trip.

 

For more information on the source of the calculation see our CO2 report.

Topic: Health, Topic: CO2

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Health

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The health benefits of cycling outweigh the safety risks by a factor of 20 to one. Source.

Cyclists on average live two years longer than non-cyclists and take 15% fewer days off work through illness. Source.

An adult who cycles regularly will typically have a level of fitness equivalent to being 10 years younger.

Source:Tuxworth, B. 1986, Quality control. Sport and Leisure, 1986 Vol. 27 No. 3 pp. 32-33

Countries with the highest levels of cycling and walking generally have the lowest obesity rates. Source.

Cycling has a positive effect on emotional health – improving levels of well-being, self-confidence and tolerance to stress while reducing tiredness, difficulties with sleep and a range of medical symptoms.

Source: Boyd, H., Hillman, M., Nevill, A., Pearce, A. and Tuxworth, B. (1998). Health-related effects of regular cycling on a sample of previous non-exercisers, Resume of main findings.

People cycling to work ‘mortality rate is 28% below the average population. Source.

Walking and cycling have benefits at the population level. As has been the case for decades, the biggest impact at the public health level would come from increasing the levels of walking and cycling by those population groups who do the least walking and cycling. Source.

Ekelund ea 2015, reporting on the EPIC study, looked at all-cause mortality and all types of physical activity and came to the same conclusion: even small increases in activity in inactive individuals would benefit public health. 

Source: Ulf Ekelund, Heather A Ward, Teresa Norat, Jian’an Luan, Anne M May, Elisabete Weiderpass, Stephen S Sharp, ea… Physical activity and all-cause mortality across levels of overall and abdominal adiposity in European men and women: the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition Study (EPIC). Am J Clin Nutr First published ahead of print January 14, 2015 as doi: 10.3945/ajcn.114.100065.

In 2011 Rojac-Rueda et al examined the health risks and benefits of cycling in urban environments compared with car use and specifically looked at Bicing Barcelona’s bicycle sharing scheme. They found that the health benefits of physical activity were large compared with risks from air pollutants and road traffic incidents. 

Source: Rojac-Rueda, D et al „The health risks and benefits of cycling in urban environments compared with car use: health impact assessment study“ BMJ 2011; 343: d4521 doi: 10.1136/bmj.d452 

Tainio ea 2016 asked the question that so many wonder about: Can air pollution negate the health benefits of cycling and walking? They answered it with a resounding “no” unless you’re cycling more than 5 hours in some of the world’s worst polluted cities. They also noted that there are higher health benefits than risks due to pollution for the first hour of cycling per day (see in the picture on the left). Source.

Flint ea 2014 investigation found that more active transport, including walking and cycling and using public transport to work independently predicts lower BMI and a healthier body composition in both adult women and men.

Source: Flint ea 2014 Associations between active commuting, body fat, and body mass index: population based, cross sectional study in the United Kingdom BMJ 2014;349:g4887 doi: 10.1136/bmj.g4887 (Published 19 August 2014).

Mytton ea 2016 investigated the longitudinal associations of active commuting with BMI and found that those who maintained cycle commuting to work over 1 year self-reported a lower BMI than those adults who never cycled to work. The effect was stronger for people who were overweight. Source

Suminski ea 2014 created a model to explain the relationship between bicycle policies in the 48 largest US cities and overweight/obesity. They found fewer overweight and obese residents in the large cities that have more cycle promotion policies. This is in part due to the relationship between such policies and the infrastructure needed to support commuter cycling.

Source: Suminski ea 2014 “Bicycling policy indirectly associated with overweight/obesity.” American J Preventive Medicine.

De Geus and Hendriksen concluded that most users have health benefits because the nature of the pedelec which requires the user to keep pedalling to have the motorizwed assist. They suggested that it’s especially good for those just starting to cycle, and for the elderly. Source.

Recent Publications on Physical Activity and Health you can find here.

 
Topic: benefit, Topic: Health

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General

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According to the Special Eurobarometer 422a (2014), convenience (49%) and speed (27%) are the first reasons why Europeans chose to cycle but cyclists are much more likely than users of other modes of transport to consider the price (24%) and the environmental impact (22%) to explain their choice.

EB2

Source

Topic: mode of transport, Topic: benefit

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Challenges

Integrating cycling and public transport

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By integrating cycling into a daily commute, one can increase the catchment area of public transport hubs. By adding a 10 minute cycle for instance, one can increase the catchment area of a bus stop up to 15 folds: 35km2 rather than just 2 km2.

In the Flemish region of Belgium 22% of all trips to the station are made by bicycle. In the Netherlands, 39% of journeys to the train station are done by bike.

Supervised storage and basic bicycle racks are a common standard in many Dutch train stations. There are 93 cycle stations with an average of 1,000 bicycles bicycle spaces, but in some cases up to 10,000.

Source and more information.

Topic: public transport, Topic: urban mobility, Topic: commuting

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Main problems & best solutions

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The Special Eurobarometer 422a (2014) asked Europeans what they consider to be the most serious problems affecting the roads and the priorities to improve road safety. Below, you find the answers of the cyclists compared to the average answers.

data

(The partly-deleted answers are “Stricter control on the use of electronic devices while driving” and “Easy and timely access to traffic information when travelling”)

Source

Topic: Road safety, Topic: congestion

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