History
Starting in the 1960s, Britain experienced a decline in utility cycling due to increasing wealth and affordability of motor vehicles and the favouring of vehicular traffic by planners. Cycling's comeback began in the 1970s when cycling advocates gained more concessions for cyclists and voiced ecological and social concerns about car use.
In 2007 there were more than 500,000 cycle journeys each day in the capital - a 91 per cent increase compared to 2000 - even though 2007 was England's wettest summer since 1912.
As of 2008 around 2 per cent of all journeys in London are by bike: this compares to other cities in the UK such as Cardiff (4.3 per cent), York (18 per cent) and Cambridge (28 per cent of commutes) and to cities on the continent such as Berlin (13 per cent), Munich (15 per cent), Copenhagen (23 per cent of all journeys / 36 per cent of commutes), Amsterdam (37 per cent of all journeys) and Groningen (57 per cent of all journeys).
In July 2010, 6,000 bicycles became available for short-term rental from Transport for London under the Barclays Cycle Hire at 400 docking stations in nine central London boroughs. This was later expanded to 8,000 cycles from 570 stations.
Read more about this topic: Cycling In London
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