Bike Week
#BikeWeekUK is celebrating its 96th year and commences from Saturday 8th June to Sunday 16th June. It’s a great time for you to try cycling for the first time, remind yourself how much you enjoy cycling or celebrate how often you get out and about on your bike!
Bike Week is delivered by Cycling UK and their aim is to get many more people across the UK to give cycling a try. Any outing on a bike counts, whether that’s a short ride to a friends house, cycling to work or school, enjoying a leisurely ride with family or taking on a cycling challenge. If you cycle, you’re almost never late!
By cycling, you explore the great outdoors, find shortcuts (or maybe an accidental longer route!), stop and talk, and park (almost) anywhere. What’s not to love?!
Throughout the week, there are many cycling events. Find an event near near you!
Cycling has many benefits and is enjoyed in many different ways, the important thing is to get outside and enjoy a ride! But there are plenty of reasons to enjoy cycling. You can read the full article here, but for ease, 10 reasons cycling is good for you are listed below!
- Reduces the risk of cancer by 45%
- 46% lower risk of cardiovascular disease
- Boosts immunity
- Good for your waistline
- Fights the ageing process
- Cuts depression by up to a third
- 95% of people interviewed said cycling helped their mental health
- Helps reduce air pollution
- Reduces asthma in children
- Saves money!
- On average, cycling to work could only cost you £1 per week per household vs the average commute cost of £51.30 per head!
CyclingUK have collated numerous cycling facts, we’ve shared some of them with you here.
71% of over 18’s in the UK, never cycle! 12% cycle at least once a week. If everyone in the UK cycled at least once a week, everyone would save money, potentially reduce their commute time and help work towards the UK reduced emissions target!
- Over the period 2013-2017, people in age bands 21-29, 30-39 and 40-49 made more cycle trips a year than any other band.
- Cycle traffic has risen almost every year since 2008: Traffic counts suggest that the number of miles cycled in 2017 – 3.27 billion – is around 29% above the figure for 1997. This is all good news, but there’s a long way to go until cycling reaches the levels seen in 1949 (14.7 billion vehicle miles)!
- Levels of cycling in the UK are amongst some of the lowest in the EU, but sales of bikes are amongst the highest.
- In 2016, more new cycles were sold in Great Britain than new cars registered: 3 million cycles versus 2.7 million cars.
