Why people cycle

First, it is important to re-state that most people do not cycle. Second, we note that most of those people who do cycle do not engage in the kind of urban, utility cycling with which we – as well as transport planners and policy-makers – are here primarily concerned. On the contrary, most people cycle only under a quite specific set of conditions, including being at leisure, in daylight and fine weather, and removed from motorised modes. These conditions tend not to prevail in urban centres. However, it is also clear that many people do enjoy cycling when they choose to ride, and they do so for a wide range of reasons, but mainly to do with health, fitness and the opportunity to unwind. For example, Dick, a middle-aged sales representative from Leicester, described with unselfconscious enthusiasm his love of a summertime bike ride at the end of a day's work (which usually entails much driving): he gets home, gets changed, and pedals out into the nearby countryside, to clear away the stresses of the day, feel the fresh air, enjoy the wildlife, get some exercise and work up an appetite for dinner. He never rides towards the city centre, nor does he undertake any of his more necessary journeys by bike, but regular bike rides, especially in summer, are for him constitutive of a particular image. He wants to keep himself in shape and not drink too much: ‘I mean it keeps me a bit fit. I don't want to get old and unfit.’ He has a couple of regular mainly off-road routes, each about ten miles long, and which get him into good bird-watching territory: ‘One of my hobbies is bird watching…so, yeah, I like to get out and do something.’ His cycling, though, is contingent on his mood: