Forum topic: Bike lane usage statistics for June

Actually the stats don't show that more people are making cycle journeys.

The figures show the number of individual journeys have gone up. This could be the same number of people making more journeys. There is no correlation between number of journeys and the number of people.

No figures are available for other sections of the cycle lanes up to Enfield Town because there is only one other counting device which is located outside Pizza Express at Winchmore Hill and I think if the figures for this location were published it would show a massive fall off in number of journeys. The hub at Palmers Green Triangle is probably the busiest place on the route.

The last survey carried out at the Winchmore Hill location was by TfL In 2017 and the numbers were 200 journeys (not people) per day over a period of a week.

By comparison in one location in Hackney (Goldsmiths Row) alone there are 4,500 journeys per day.

The good news is that number of cycle journeys is increasing - which is likely to mean less polluting vehicles and healthier lives for those cycling. I am a sample of 'one' but I now cycle from Fox Lane to Enfield Town and back (so my journey isn't counted) two to three times week whereas before the cycle lanes I drove. More room on road for buses and those who must drive

Is there any baseline data from the preceding years? Any rational capital investment of this magnitude would baseline the usage and look at the rate of increase over a number of years.

Not since 2011 according to the stats I have collected. For me the key numbers and questions are:
1. How many cyclists use the lanes, not how many journeys
2. Has the percentage of cyclists in the borough or area gone up. It was 1.4% previously. The lowest in London.
Hackney has 20 times the amount of cycling traffic
3. Why is the date only collected from Palmers Green when there is a measuring device at Winchmore Hi. I think it is because it tapers off dramatically.

I also just checked the cycle enfield website and the counter in Winchmore Hill is not mentioned in the list of six locations for gathering the data

The investment is perfectly justified and would be even if there had been a zero per cent increase in cycling along the route.

Two years ago all people cycling along Green Lanes were at an unacceptably high risk of serious injury or death. Now several hundred users of the bike lanes are safer and less stressed. These are people who have chosen the most benign method of transport and who have been comprehensively ignored for many decades. During that time many thousands of cyclists have been killed by drivers who did not take sufficient care or because of road designs that ignored their safety. It is shameful that UK national and local governments have ignored this scandal for so long and I am very pleased to see a change in attitude. It is a simple matter of justice. There is no need to bring cost/benefit analysis into the picture - it is the resort of those who know the price of everything and the value of nothing.

In terms of total money spent on road, the amount spent on cycling infrastructure is absolutely negligible - I don't have any figures to hand, but suspect that it over the last twenty years it will be less than 1 per cent.

This excerpt from a recent newspaper article makes the point:

In any case, cyclists pay for the roads, not just drivers - we all pay out of taxes. On top of that, many cyclists also drive cars, so they too pay the same amount of duty as other drivers. Children don't pay, obviously, but their parents do. And the drivers don't pay their fair share of the "externalities" - the knock-on cost to government of car driving, such as the costs of accidents to the police and health service.