City Ratings, a data analysis tool, has ranked a series of towns and cities across England and Europe based on their cycleability in 2022, which showed that London is still falling behind its European counterparts.
This year, the data for England is focused on London, Manchester and the West Midlands.
The highest scoring regions in Europe included The Hague in South Holland (89), Leuven, Flemish Brabant, Belgium (85) and Brussels, Belgium (84).
Places were scored based on two main factors: the quality of the cycling network and infrastructure and the perceptions and community perceptions of cycling options in the area.
Feedback to inform the rating was sourced from the PeopleForBikes Bicycle Network Analysis and from surveys with local residents.
Some 51 boroughs were rated, with the average Bicycle Network Analysis score for all boroughs being 42/100.
London was the highest with overall ratings, with 18 of the top 20 boroughs being in the capital; two of these also featured in the top 20 internationally.
However, London performed poorly when compared with its European counterparts, with an average score of just 49.8 compared to Paris’ score of 82.56 and Berlin’s of 77.75.
Manchester scored an average of 30 and the West Midlands scored 26.
Edinburgh was the UK’s best-performing city and sat in 12th place on the list, whereas London as a while ranked as 47th, making it England’s only city to appear in the top 50.
Jenn Dice, CEO and president of PeopleForBikes, said: ‘’Building safe, connected bike networks is key to growing cycling worldwide, which is why PeopleForBikes created the City Ratings program.
“We know that when people feel safe and comfortable riding a bike, they are more likely to cycle to everyday destinations like school, work, and the grocery store. We are excited to see a growing commitment to cycling and building better bike networks throughout the United Kingdom.”
Hackney scored the highest out of all English boroughs surveyed, with an overall rating score of 67.4, compared to the average of 49.8, which was the same as London’s overall score.
According to PeopleForBikes, a score of 50 indicates there is adequate cycling infrastructure installed to enable rapid cycling growth.