Getting around
Do you still need a car in Leeds?
Loading cycling and traffic counts from Leeds City Council…
Cycling vs driving, since the baseline
Both lines start at 100 in the baseline year, so you can compare how each has grown or shrunk. Above 100 means busier than the baseline; below means quieter.
Average daily cycling count per counter
The average number of bikes each cycle counter recorded per day, by year.
Average daily motor traffic per counter
The same measure for vehicles: the average number counted per traffic recorder per day, each year.
Cycling has a season
Average daily cycling by month of the year, across all the data. Leeds cycles more in summer than in winter, so a single month's figure says little on its own.
Where the counters are
The cycle and traffic counters dotted around the Leeds district. The network is denser on the main routes in and out of the city.
Sources: Leeds annual cycle growth and Leeds annual traffic growth, published by Leeds City Council. Last updated —.
The comparison starts in 2022, the first year both networks have continuous monthly data. Earlier years are patchy and 2020–21 is distorted by the pandemic. Each recorder counts vehicles or bikes passing a fixed point, hour by hour. Because the set of working recorders changes over time, the charts use the average count per recorder per day rather than raw totals, which assumes the working recorders are representative of the city. Cycling is strongly seasonal, so years with only a few months of data are flagged where shown.