Cycling worth £3bn a year to the UK Economy

HappyMJ

custardy wrote: »

when people are throwing £000s on new bikes and components it soon adds up
whats a journey?
what about off roaders,track users? are they included?

The report counts usages as journeys but does not count the mileage of going round a quarter mile track 50 times. It counts mileage from point A to point B via a road. It does however state that the percentage of frequent (more than once a week), enthusiants (those who treat cycling as a sport or passion) that spend more than £1,600 on a new bike is very low. It says small proportion and doesn't state the percentage exactly.

martinthebandit wrote: »

Aye, yet another report that appears to be written for a self interest group, which comes out with the numbers the reports commisioners wanted.

What numbers do they want? I'm sure cycling doesn't cost that much and that is only going to scare off new entrants.

Generali

Wookster wrote: »

Walking is easy but its not for everyone (me included). There is a 4 year (!) wait for an allotment in my Borough.

My point is that for the vast majority, exercise can be done for nothing or next to nothing.

Cycling is a great example. I can pay $27/wk for a bus ticket or I can cycle to work. Cycling keeps me fit and saves me money. And I can jump red lights and ride at breakneck speeds on the pavement because of Lycra or something like that.

puddy

custardy wrote: »

when people are throwing £000s on new bikes and components it soon adds up
whats a journey?
what about off roaders,track users? are they included?

i would imagine there are other factors too

when we go out for a bike ride we make a day of it. both of us cannot cycle on most roads, we're not fit enough or agile enough and therefore are a danger on a normal road, i find it difficult to stop and start and getting on and off is difficult. i also get nervous

so we go to places specifically to find a cycle path or source routes which are on country lanes where cars wont be wizzing past (some country roads are worse than your average high street), we have to get the width of the road right, visibility has to be right etc etc

therefore we drive to where we're going (petrol costs), we take a picnic (shopping), we also will stop off at local pubs either for a meal later or for drinks along the way), plus if we had money to burn i would love a new bike. i would imagine that our 'free' cycling actually costs us quite a bit

we often go to the romney marsh, we have cycled from lydd to rye, that was very nice but was on road at camber sands which was a bit scary for me and we will be investigating a new route i found locally which is on road, plus we found a forest the other day which we think we can cycle round. all of this requires a pub lunch afterwards

MFW_10Yrs_3

puddy wrote: »

i would imagine there are other factors too

when we go out for a bike ride we make a day of it. both of us cannot cycle on most roads, we're not fit enough or agile enough and therefore are a danger on a normal road, i find it difficult to stop and start and getting on and off is difficult. i also get nervous

so we go to places specifically to find a cycle path or source routes which are on country lanes where cars wont be wizzing past (some country roads are worse than your average high street), we have to get the width of the road right, visibility has to be right etc etc

therefore we drive to where we're going (petrol costs), we take a picnic (shopping), we also will stop off at local pubs either for a meal later or for drinks along the way), plus if we had money to burn i would love a new bike. i would imagine that our 'free' cycling actually costs us quite a bit

we often go to the romney marsh, we have cycled from lydd to rye, that was very nice but was on road at camber sands which was a bit scary for me and we will be investigating a new route i found locally which is on road, plus we found a forest the other day which we think we can cycle round. all of this requires a pub lunch afterwards

We are the same, we take the kids to forests that have purpose built tracks and route markers and always end up in the cafe for cake and coffee. Often they have bike hire facilities too. The costs soon mount up, but it's still a cheap day out, plus you get to exercise as a family.

puddy

plus i forgot all the stuff that we bought to store and transport the bikes. we got a pricey roof rack and then a separate rack for my car which goes on the back

we orginally had a bike store in the front of the garden, but realised that we needed planning permission for that, so that had to come down and then we bought a new one, different size and shape to put along the side of the house. unfortunately its much smaller than the original which means i cant store my carrier in it which has made me reluctant to get it out the shed (shudder) and travel on my own,

but anyway, so 2 sheds, 2 racks, gloves, glasses, panniers etc etc

Really2

Doing my Bit.

2 days a week I cycle in to work, Think that may get to near 0 days in winter.

mr_fishbulb

Currently cycle to work 3 days a week, but I'm still paying for an annual zone 2 travel card so I'd say I'm doing my bit for the economy!

I wonder if the figures account for the fact that if someone is using a bike for their trip (unless it's just a fun ride) then they are going to not be paying for another way to make the journey? Jumping on the bike for a quick trip to the shops means you don't need to put petrol in the car.

Really2

MFW_10Yrs wrote: »

Totally agree. I do a lot of off-road cycling but never feel safe on roads to actually cycle to work. In other countries in Europe there seems to be a greater commitment to making cycling safer. Here we have yellow lines painted onto our busy roads, which peter out after a while or end up clogged with parked cars.

Some towns have taken good steps. Only 1.5 Mile of my 6.5 mile journey to work is actually on the road, all of that is in a 20-30 mph zone. The rest is cycle paths.

Problem is for the UK a lot of towns are old and thus have very narrow streets making adaption virtually impossible.

kabayiri

3 billion quid eh?

Can we err have that in tenners ? (unmarked if possible, Mrs Cameron has seen some great nick nacks for the house whilst in Cornwall).

Cycling is dangerous on a lot of UK roads up here. We need far more purpose built cycle paths, with defined mugging points and recycled broken glass.

antrobus

Wookster wrote: »

How interesting. That's a reasonable slug of GDP!

Only if you consider one fifth of one percent as being 'reasonable'.

Almost everything you care to name is worth £x billion to the UK economy; children are worth £5bn a year and the 'illegal drugs trade' is worth £8bn, for example. And I strongly suspect that if you added up all the billions that were supposedly 'worth something' to the UK economy you'd end up with an aggregate figure that was much bigger than the actual size of the economy.

Wookster wrote: »

There's been a fair bit on exercise and its ability to lengthen life (compared to TV which can be as hazardous as smoking). More here:http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/aug/16/benefits-daily-exercise-smoking

I would really like to see more done to enable people to build exercise into their daily/ weekly routine. This would go a huge distance to solving the demographic time-bomb I'd suspect.

Actually I think that if you wanted to go about "solving the demographic time-bomb" you'd be better off encouraging people to do the kind of things that meant that they dropped dead at just about the time they were due to collect their pensions.