"I can't claim to have looked at the detailed data but what is clear is that the reliable data points in the past are more limited and it is difficult to find comprehensive data sets to provide a convincing like for like comparison."Sorry, Jeremy, but that is simply not true. As Michael says, there are two datasets from TfL and DfT that provide bike counts prior to 2020. The TfL counts have been taken annually since 2015. Here are the totals from 6 am to 10 pm:2015 21302016 16862017 23072018 21782019 21142020 27622021 28892022 2655These manual counts are taken on one week day of each year, so will have more variability than the averages from continuous camera counts, but these provide data taken on a consistent basis over eight years, even if the date of the count was not necessarily representative. For example the count day in 2022 corresponded to the period of the upgrade of C9 that partially closed the cycle lane. This particularly affected the daytime counts compared to 2021, and therefore it's better to take an average of 2021 and 2022 to get a more consistent picture of the changes. The average growth after C9 was implemented, 2021 and 2022, compared to the prepandemic years before it was installed, 2015 to 2019, is 33%. Looking at the hourly figures over these two periods, 2021 to 2022 compared to 2015 to 2019, the average changes were:6 am to 9 am: +1%9 am to 4 pm: +94% 4pm to 7 pm: +27%7 pm to 10 pm: +45%There are more delivery cyclists, but these are seen mostly in the evening, while the four largest hourly growths are from 10 am to 2 pm. The evidence is that C9 has been particularly successful in encouraging people to cycle during the day. This is not likely to be leisure cycling, rather people using bikes to go about their shopping and other tasks. Given that the most common use of cars is not for commuting, but rather shopping, this is just the shift that we need to see.Here's the extracted hourly counts so you can check for yourself. The data is not murky if you take a look!Year 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 212015 85 246 276 156 68 53 77 66 62 75 125 237 266 189 86 632016 60 164 215 95 22 21 23 23 89 92 141 226 267 159 59 302017 106 266 336 134 51 51 57 52 79 90 157 258 322 184 100 642018 95 235 311 142 56 61 61 63 63 94 139 315 269 162 71 412019 114 228 329 141 87 73 79 74 53 61 94 169 294 161 109 482020 108 268 270 151 100 114 99 103 122 177 238 307 311 207 121 662021 85 200 248 180 120 105 152 151 124 192 247 300 314 214 160 972022 111 283 310 129 89 69 102 102 122 125 176 315 310 190 139 83Source: https://cycling.data.tfl.gov.uk
Tom Pike ● 545d