Jeremy, the ONS report that motoring costs have increased by 31% since the pandemic, while TfL fares have gone up by 16% so the greater shift to cycling in London has not been motivated simply by a larger increase in transport costs here, quite the opposite. Similarly public transport mileage in London, as well as car mileage, has also sprung back faster than in the rest of England, both in absolute and relative terms. On that basis we'd have expected a larger drop in cycling in London than the rest of England as more people returned to their previous mode of travel. It is therefore very reasonable to argue that the measures taken in London have encouraged a greater retention of the shift to cycling from the pandemic, certainly more plausible than the alternatives you suggest.Looking more locally, the big increase in cycling on the High Road came in 2020, before C9 was deployed at the end of the year, with an additional 700 cyclists a day in counts on the High Road. The rapid deployment was aimed to retain as much as possible of that increase, not just in counts, but more importantly in the shift in cycled mileage. That increase in cycling mileage will be down to a combination of more people cycling and people cycling further.In terms of C9's contribution to the retention of most of the shift to cycling, TfL's monitoring report for C9 gives an increase in cycling mileage of 47% between 2021 to date, while for London as a whole it dropped by 7% from 2021 to 2022. C9 therefore seems to be doing more than its fair share in encouraging people to keep on cycling, which was precisely the aim of the rapid deployment of such measures.
Tom Pike ● 1105d