Cycling and walking both increased in Crawley during the pandemic, research shows

The same happened with walking - with more adults walking at least once a week. That bucked the national trend which saw the number of walkers drop overall, 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.

They show that 13.3 per cent of those surveyed cycled at least once a week in 2019/20, up from just ten per cent the previous year.

Of those, 8.9 per cent cycled for leisure (up from 7.5 per cent) and 6.2 per cent to travel (up from 3.7 per cent in 2018/19).

Crawley was ranked 103rd in England out of more than 300 local authority areas listed for the percentage of people using their bike at least once a week.

Horsham district was ranked 138th with 12.2 per cent cycling, but in Mid Sussex the percentage of people using their bikes fell and that area was ranked 261.

The number of people walking also rose slightly during the pandemic, and the percentages are much higher.

In Crawley 68.4 per cent of people said they walked at least once a week in November 2019/20, up from 62.2 per cent the year before.

Of those 55 per cent walked for leisure, an increase in the number for 2018/19 which was given as 40.9 per cent.

The percentage of people who walked to travel dropped significantly from 39.4 per cent in 2018/19 to just 28.2 per cent in 2019/20, reflecting the lockdown period when many workers were furloughed or switched to working from home.

Crawley was ranked 176th in England for the percentage of people who walked at least once a week.

Horsham was ranked 63rd and Mid Sussex was ranked 168th.