On a roll: More Bike Week Breakfasts to figure out

Bike Week means Cyclist Breakfasts. Today's two were at Narrow St (near Limehouse Basin, a bit east of Tower Bridge, and near where Boris nearly came to grief last year) and Colebrook Row, Islington (next to the gentrified shared-ped-n-cycle sign).


Colebrook Row's (above right), provided by the Islington Cycle Action Group, had the advantage of a site on a bike cut-through by traffic signals, enabling them to hand out apple-cake incentives to waiting riders.


There was a wheelbarrow-fronted bike containing a charming toddler for that Islington touch, and busy Dr Bikes doing complex repairs beyond the scope of some commuters, such as adjusting barrel adjusters and, er, pumping up tyres.


Narrow Street's breakfast, courtesy of the vibrant Tower Hamlets Wheelers, was a grand affair: ham, cheese, real coffee, tea, fruit juice, croissants, muffins, bagels, jams, and that swirly hazelnut / Nutella stuff whose calorie count looks like they've put the helpline number by mistake.

It was right on the CS3, the Superficial Cycleway that runs from Barking to Tower Gateway. (Curiously, the markings for the 'continuous' cycleway are in isolated squares here, not a continuous line. Perhaps you're meant to bunny-hop from one to the other.)


This is a very busy commuter-cycle corridor, with whizzing cyclists far outnumbering cars or taxis.

Owen of THW has been doing a census each breakfast day for the last four years. After a mushrooming in 2009, the figures for west-east (towards Canary Wharf) were up 17% on 2009, with the east-west figures (towards the City) down 9%.


Qualitatively, the rider profile seems to have nudged upmarket, with more expensive road bikes and more gear on display.

Here are those figures in full, courtesy of Owen. You might be able to make a bar chart or Venn Diagram or something out of these. I tried in Excel but just kept getting Canary Wharf in multicoloured Lego.


Cyclists passing the Grapes pub, Narrow St, on Bike Week Breakfast morning 2007–2010

2010   0730–0800 0800–0830 0830–0900 0900–0930 Total

E–W 82 115 110 57 364

W–E 150 221 213 100 684

Total 232 336 323 157 1048

2009   0730–0800 0800–0830 0830–0900 0900–0930 Total

E–W 80 133 115 68 396

W–E 145 162 188 88 583

Total 225 295 303 156 979

2008   0730–0800 0800–0830 0830–0900 0900–0930 Total

E–W 52 92 77 24 245

W–E 84 124 121 50 379

Total 136 216 198 74 624

2007   0730–0800 0800–0830 0830–0900 0900–0930 Total

E–W 56 73 54 25 208

W–E 96 106 106 38 346

Total 152 179 160 63 554

All of which conclusively proves that the cycling boom we keep hearing about is true. Or maybe false. Or not as simple as it's made out, or something. But whatever it proves, it proves I was right all along.