More than fifteen years after Team GB's dominant velodrome performance at the Beijing Olympics sparked predictions of a national cycling revolution, the United Kingdom's journey to becoming a bike-friendly nation has largely stalled. While London enjoys a sustained boom, national figures reveal a worrying trend of static participation and declining sales, raising urgent questions about safety, investment, and political commitment.
A Nation of Cyclists? The Stubborn Reality Check
Campaigners and ministers have long heralded an imminent cycling transformation, but the data tells a different story. Excluding a brief pandemic-related spike, the number of cycling trips in England has remained broadly unchanged for years. The industry's health is also under scrutiny. The Bicycle Association reported that in 2024, sales of conventional bicycles hit their lowest level this century. Brompton, the iconic folding bike maker, recorded its lowest annual sales since 2021 in December.
Phillip Darnton, Executive Chair of the Bicycle Association, expressed concern: "If you look at the sales of pedal cycles since 2010, there isn't a year except the Covid year when sales haven't declined. I'm always puzzled that people in the industry aren't more alarmed about that."
London's Boom vs. National Gloom: The Infrastructure Divide
This picture is not uniformly bleak. London stands as a notable exception, with nearly 1.5 million daily cycling trips, a figure 43% higher than in 2019. Experts point to a critical factor behind this success: consistent, long-term political leadership and investment. For over two decades, successive mayors from Ken Livingstone to Boris Johnson and Sadiq Khan have supported cycling, enabling the development of safer infrastructure and policies like the Congestion Charge and Low Traffic Neighbourhoods.
Adam Tranter, a former cycling commissioner for the West Midlands, highlights a fundamental truth: "Whichever way you look at it, you can't reach the potential of cycling without making it much more safe and hospitable to cycle. It all comes down to that basic fact." He notes that trends like the shift from road bikes to off-road 'gravel' bikes and indoor trainers are a "code for people saying, 'I don't like being near cars as I don't feel safe'."
E-bikes, Illegal Machines, and a Shifting Market
The cycling landscape is evolving rapidly with technology, but the UK's response has been inconsistent. While legal e-bikes and hire schemes like Lime are growing in popularity, they are shadowed by the rampant use of illegal, high-powered electric machines, often used by delivery riders. These pose a significant safety and image problem for cycling at large.
The UK market is also diverging sharply from Europe. Phillip Darnton highlights the stark contrast: "This year, Germany, France, the Netherlands and Spain will sell more than 5m electric bikes between them. We might be lucky if we sell 150,000 here." European nations benefit from safer roads and purchase subsidies, whereas the UK only offers such incentives for electric cars and motorbikes.
Furthermore, e-bikes face perception issues, compounded by media coverage of battery fires and restrictions from landlords or employers on parking and charging. Darnton warns of a bleak future if the UK fails to emulate continental approaches: "Unless we can do what Europe does, what is going to happen to the UK cycle market is it's going to be a leisure market, like golf or tennis."
The path to a true cycling nation is clear: it requires dedicated investment in segregated, safe infrastructure and unwavering political will. Without it, the UK risks watching the revolution happen elsewhere, while its own wheels spin in place.
