Cardiff is Britain’s best city for cyclists, poll finds

But many struggle to find suitable routes

Forty per cent of cyclists struggle to find suitable routes or paths near them (PA)

Britain’s top five cycling cities have been named as Cardiff, Newcastle, Plymouth, Birmingham and London.

A poll of 2,000 UK adults saw the Welsh city of Cardiff come first, getting a higher rating than any other city in the country, scoring an average of 3.12 out of five.

Newcastle, which has picturesque routes stretching all the way from Gateshead Millennium Bridge to a number of locations, came second with a rating of 3.03 on average – a score matched by the seaside city of Plymouth.

Birmingham and London completed the top five, followed by Leeds, Edinburgh, Bristol, Glasgow and Norwich.

Participants were asked to rate a range of factors including cycling infrastructure, such as cycle lanes and signage, local cycling facilities, countryside accessibility and their sense of personal safety when it came to riding in the city.

The research, commissioned by route planning and navigation platform Komoot, found that just under seven in 10 respondents thought they had seen far more bikes on the roads and cycle paths recently compared to before the pandemic.

A spokesperson for Komoot said: “Cycling has seen a huge uplift over the past few months and in order for us to support this we need to understand what hurdles the UK public faces when it comes to cycling and what is important to them.

“We believe everyone should be able to access great cycling no matter where you live or how experienced you are as a cyclist.”

However, four in 10 respondents found it difficult to find routes or cycling paths near to them that were suitable for the bike they had.

The results showed the most popular type of bike in the UK is the classic mountain bike (40 per cent), followed by a road bike (35 per cent), while just 14 per cent own a ‘hybrid’ of the two.

And just under one in 10 had invested in an electric bike, according to the OnePoll figures.

It also emerged the average person will go for a bike ride five times a month, with the typical outing lasting just under an hour at 52 minutes.

SWNS