Been counting cyclists on the A200 Jamaica Rd from my balcony for the last 11 months of pandemic. The effect of successive lockdowns has been to trigger a large increase in cycling at weekends. For example as shown in the chart there was an increase of 200% during and immediately after Lockdown 1 in May and June. Levels have dropped a bit since, but are still double pre-covid levels. If we adjust for the usual rise of cycling in the summer and fall in the winter we get the yellow bars in the chart. These show an estimated 120% rise in the summer. And now, in January and February, when cycling would usually be low, we are seeing seasonally adjusted cycle flows 170% above pre- Covid levels.
Interpretation of the maintained increase is tricky as Cycleway 4 along Jamaica Rd opened in September. Some of the long-term increase in cycling may be due to the popularity of CW4. But some of the increase will, I think, indicate a widespread upswing in leisure cycling, something that is visible on many other roads
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