Cycling and walking both decreased in Mid Sussex during the pandemic, research shows

Fewer adults took to their bikes during the pandemic, bucking the national trend, new figures from the Department for Transport have shown.
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Those walking also reduced, with with fewer adults walking at least once a week. This was driven by a big fall in the number of people walking to travel, for example, to work.

The figures released yesterday (Wednesday) compared data from November 2019-2020 with that taken in November 2018-19.

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They show that 8.9 per cent of those surveyed cycled at least once a week in 2019/20, down from 9.6 per cent the previous year.

The number of people cycling dropped in Mid Sussex during the pandemicThe number of people cycling dropped in Mid Sussex during the pandemic
The number of people cycling dropped in Mid Sussex during the pandemic

Of those, 7.3 per cent cycled for leisure (up slightly from 7.0 per cent) and just 1.9 per cent to travel (down from 3.6 per cent in 2018/19).

Mid Sussex was ranked 261 in England for cycling out of more than 300 local authority areas listed.

Crawley was ranked 103rd with a higher cycle usage of 13.3 per cent, and Horsham was ranked 138 with 12.2 per cent.

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Although walking fell during the pandemic, the percentages are much higher.

In Mid Sussex 68.4 per cent of people said they walked at least once a week in November 2019/20, down from 78.2 per cent the year before.

Of those 58.7 per cent walked for leisure, exactly the same number as in 2018/19.

The percentage of people who walked to travel dropped significantly from 46.8 per cent in 2018/19 to just 28.5 per cent in 2019/20, reflecting the lockdown period when many workers were furloughed or switched to working from home.

Mid Sussex was ranked 168th in England for the percentage of people who walked at least once a week.

Horsham was ranked 63rd with a percentage of 73.4 and and Crawley 176th with 68.4 per cent.