Cycle Flows on the TFL Road Network

Cycle flows on the Transport for London Road Network (TLRN).

The purpose of this indicator is to assess the level of cycle use on the TLRN. The overall ambition is to increase cycling levels by 400% such that by 2025 cycling will equate to a 5% mode share of all journey trips.

This indicator does not represent cycling across London as a whole, It only represents cycling on the 5% of London’s roads that are the TLRN.
The indicator is presented as an indexed flow relative to a baseline of March 2000 (a flow level that is represented as 100 on the index).
Definition: Sixty automatic cycle counters on the TLRN provide sample counts of cyclists using the network. The indicator converts these counts into an index that is used to represent increases in cycle flows on the TLRN over time. It does not represent the total number of cyclists in London. Automatic cycling counters are pieces of monitoring equipment that emit a magnetic field that detects the presence of a moving cycle.
Cycling data is collected monthly using telemetry. This is the process whereby live data is wired down a communication line. The data is sent directly to a database. A summary of the data is then forwarded to the Head of the Performance Monitoring Team each period via e-mail.

With the future growth of cycling expected to take place not only on the TLRN, but on all the capital’s roads, TfL has developed a new methodology for recording cycling journeys that will run in parallel with the existing cycling index. At the current phase of development, monitoring using this metric is restricted to the central London congestion. Based on this metric, a daily average of 402,199 kilometres – or 131,000 cycle journeys - were cycled during the first Quarter of 2014.

The Mayor published his Vision for Cycling in March 2013, outlining plans to spend £913m on cycling improvements over the next 10 years, with a gross budget of £107m in 2014/15.