Love to Ride Blog

Devon County Council - behaviour change in action

Written by Claire Sharpe | August 26, 2021 at 3:56 PM

Love to Ride has worked with Devon County Council to get more people on bikes since 2016. Over the past 5 years, individuals and organizations in Devon have clocked up more than 8-million miles, encouraged 1,592 new riders, and achieved 34,305 badges including 171 'Legends' (people logging over 100,000 miles).

With Cycle September 2021 fast approaching, and them playing host to the Tour of Britain (which will see elite cyclists from around the world blast through their streets), we decided to take a look at Love to Ride Devon’s achievements from last Cycle September and their impressive behavior change outcomes.


Cycle September 2020

Participation stats:
Organizations 136
Participants 1,532
Distances (miles) 211,794
Total trips 16,341

The gender split:

• 53% of all new riders were women, reflecting the trend that we have seen more and more women take up cycling over the last 1.5 years.

We also identified a big opportunity for modal shift with 25% of all participants reporting they usually commute to work by car when they registered.

 

During-challenge engagement

• New rider participants, on average, enjoyed a total of 7 rides during the month-long challenge period. Resulting in 1,000 total rides, clocking up 8.6 miles per ride.


• Occasional riders biked a similar number of rides to new riders but for a greater distance, riding 12.3 miles per trip.


• Regular riders on average logged approximately three rides a week. 27% of regular riders biked to work during the challenge.


Post-Cycle September
3 week survey results

66% of new riders, 49% of occasional riders, and 27% of regular riders said they intended to ride their bike more often in the future.

6 months after Cycle September

In March 2021 we resurveyed participants to find out how their behaviour had changed.

  • 68% new riders are riding more often, slightly more than said they intended to in the 3-week survey.
  • 45% of occasional riders are riding more often, only slightly under the 49% who said they intended to in the 3-week survey.
  • More than a quarter of riders who did not ride to work before Cycle September are riding more often afterwards.
  • 28% of participants were riding for other transportation purposes – like to get groceries, visit friends, grab a coffee, etc.

Changes in physical activity

  • Of those who were not meeting the recommended levels of physical activity per week prior to taking part in the Challenge, 52% noted an increase in physical activity after.
  • 75% of participants who did not do any physical activity prior to the challenge had increased to doing physical activity on three or more days 6-months after.


What the riders say


“Cycle September is a great initiative and incredibly helpful in encouraging people to cycle more.” Camilla M, Regular rider

“Always enjoy getting involved in these challenges, it has been somewhat different this year, but I still tried to get on my bike where possible.” - Matt T, Regular rider

“I really enjoy being part of the love to ride experience. It is definitely motivational to log rides, and see the mileage growing” - Karen K, Occasional rider