From Amsterdam to Vilnius: European cities most and least frequented by cyclists

This article was originally published in English

The European Commission has been actively urging citizens to do so for years “use your own energy”. Active mobility is known not only as an important way of saving energy, but also as a means of strengthening physical and mental health.

Cycling is one of the best ways to do this, but new findings show that relatively few people in Europe use the bike as a regular means of transport.

The sixth edition of the Commission’s report on the quality of life in European cities publishes the results of a survey carried out in 2023.

More than 70,000 European citizens from 83 cities in the EU, the UK, Norway, Switzerland, the Western Balkans and Turkey were interviewed about a wide range of aspects of everyday life.

The report covers a variety of topics, including housing, financial stability, health care, green space availability and, of course, transportation.

What does the report reveal about cycling rates in Europe?

Of the 83 cities studied, only a few have large numbers of daily cyclists, and even fewer consider cycling to be a relevant mode of transport.

On average across all cities, only 14% of respondents use cycling as a mode of transport.

Interestingly, their use tends to decrease as cities expand. In a city of less than 250,000 people, approximately 16% of residents report cycling on a typical day. This number drops to 14% in cities with 1 to 5 million inhabitants.

Only three European cities report that more than 35% of their residents use a bicycle daily.

They are Groningen and Amsterdam in the Netherlands and Copenhagen in Denmark – and all three have relatively small populations.

In these cities, the relatively high use of bicycles has a domino effect on public transport. In the survey, respondents said they were less satisfied with the systems than in other cities.

It is exclusively the countries of Northern Europe – the cities of Belgium, Sweden, Finland, Austria and Germany – that complete the list of ten localities where cycling is most abundant.

On the contrary, the countries of southern and eastern Europe have the fewest daily cyclists. Rome has only 5% of daily cyclists, while in Belgrade and Vilnius only 6% answered positively.

What explains the differences in cycling rates in Europe?

The survey found that many – and varied – factors come into play in whether people cycle.

Slightly more men report cycling every day, and on average the 15-24 age group cycle most often (16%), while only 13% of the population aged 55 and over cycle regularly.

Looking more closely at the socio-demographic characteristics, we see that the percentage of bicycle users is higher among people with higher education and among single people, but is significantly lower among retired people and the unemployed.

Despite constant warnings about the dangers of climate change and its link to fossil fuels, 48% of urban dwellers still use a car on a daily basis.

However, the bigger the city, the fewer people use the car. In most of the countries presented in the report, the capital is the country with the least car use.

Capital cities tend to have the best public transport services in the country and can also discourage people from driving due to traffic congestion and high parking costs. Other cities, such as London, have introduced taxes on high-emission vehicles, which authorities hope will lead to a significant drop in car use.

What could encourage city dwellers to use bicycles more?

With many urban dwellers seemingly chained to cars or public transport, and others simply unwilling to use their own energy, the number of cyclists could potentially increase.

The European Cyclists’ Federation (ECF) contested the European Commission’s investigation.

ECF suggests this “The thematic scope of the report is very broad” and released its own data that focuses more narrowly on cycling itself.

In this data “We were able to establish a clear correlation between the coverage of the main road network by separate infrastructure and the rate of bicycle use in the cities examined in the report. (from the European Commission)’. In other words, bike lanes are useful.

ECF is calling on leaders to push through the proposed European Cycling Declaration to significantly increase safe and consistent cycling infrastructure across the continent.