It is 6pm on a Friday evening and in Ghent, Belgium’s third city, the number of people on bicycles seemingly outnumbers those in cars.
On Forelstraat, a suburban road that leads towards the centre, an overhaul of traffic rules has made it one-way for cars with a whole carriageway given over to cyclists.
It is a striking example of how, with political will and an acceptance of active travel, cities can be transformed to promote two wheels over four. Almost everywhere there are painted cycle lanes, segregated sections or entire roads closed to motor traffic.
“Everything is in balance there,” said Sarah McMonagle, the director of external affairs at Cycling UK, the trade group. “You have to remember the city was like London a decade ago and they didn’t think it could be done, but they persisted. It just goes to show what can be achieved with the right kind of political leadership and the right investment.”
In the UK investment in active travel has stalled and, having hit a peak during the pandemic, bike sales are falling and ridership is on the wane.
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The latest statistics from the Bicycle Association show that 2023 was the worst year for sales in the UK since 1985. Sales of mechanical bikes — referring to bikes without any hydraulic features — fell a further 5 per cent in 2023, on top of the 23 per cent decrease in 2022.
Sales last year were 33 per cent below pre-pandemic levels, a fall the cycling industry attributes in part to the surge in sales during Covid as well as the cost of living crisis and a lack of attention on clear cycle infrastructure.
Data from the Department for Transport shows that cycling activity on roads fell 5 per cent year-on-year in the 12 months to September 2023, although it is still 3 per cent up on pre-pandemic levels.
“The sales issue is partly a run-off from the fact that so many people started cycling during the pandemic,” McMonagle said. “However, what the previous government could have done was try to lock in that appetite for getting around by bike in the long term by increasing, or at least sustaining the investment they were making into cycling infrastructure and by being encouraging and supportive of cycling.
“But instead we saw the tap being turned off with massive cuts to active travel budgets and an ever-increasingly divisive rhetoric of motorists versus cyclists. I think that combination definitely had an impact.”
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Last month Halfords, the UK’s biggest bike retailer, said that volumes of its bicycle sales were down by almost a third after a surge during lockdowns. It said the tumbling sales had led to an increase in discounting. It currently has 20 per cent off bikes and e-bikes, with mechanical bikes from about £250.
A spokeswoman told The Times: “There are several factors contributing to the downturn, not least because there was a relatively sharp peak in Covid, which created a level of pull forward of demand. That’s also coupled against the fact the cost of living crisis is directly impacting discretionary spend, which hits cycling.”
There has also been a significant fall in the number of children cycling, with participation well below pre-pandemic levels and falling further in 2023, according to Sport England. The number of children regularly getting on a bike was 20.6 per cent in 2022-23 compared with 27.2 per cent in 2018-19.
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“This is a real area of concern as children cycling is down significantly compared with pre-Covid,” the spokeswoman for Halfords said. “It’s a big trend we are seeing that’s ultimately impacted by things such as infrastructure, accessibility, safety, affordability and again the cost of living.
“In some areas there is really good infrastructure for cycling, especially in parts of London, but there’s definitely more that needs to be done to help push up adoption levels, given that safety and security will always be a major factor.”
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John Parkin, a professor of transport engineering at the University of the West of England in Bristol, believes that there are parallels between the issues facing the uptake of electric cars and cycling — mainly a lack of infrastructure.
“There’s a link between an ability to perform a certain behaviour and sentiment that might surround it,” he said. “So sentiment for buying bicycles will be absolutely linked to whether there is a capability to cycle or not and predominantly that means good infrastructure.”
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He said in places like London and Birmingham, where there has been good investment, cycling is slowly becoming more normalised. He believes that there needs to be 10-15 per cent of people carrying out journeys by bike for it to “start to sink into the psyche as being more of the norm”.
He said: “It seems to be broadly a tipping point. Some of the larger cities in Europe have had that level for many years and you get the sense that cycling is part of the fabric in these places.”
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Parkin also notes the overall safety benefit of having more cyclists. “If every time you are driving through a junction, you anticipate seeing a cyclist, then it’s become a norm. The level you need is about 60 or more an hour [passing the junction] to begin to get that social warning effect — the safety in numbers effect, as it’s called.”
In Ghent that is more than apparent. “You really know that drivers are expecting to encounter cyclists,” said Alix Ostyn, 30, who grew up in the city. “Because of that and the fact there are so many cycle lanes, it makes you feel really safe being on a bike here. It’s certainly not the case in every city.”
