Þann 18. nóvemember 2010 barst LHM fyrirspurn frá samtökum Evrópskra hjólreiðafélaga (European Cyclists Federation ECF), sem LHM er aðili að, um ýmis atriði varðandi hjólreiðar á Íslandi. Meðal annars var spurt um reiðhjólaáætlanir af hendi stjórnvalda, markmið stjórnvalda um hjólreiðar, hlutfall ferða sem farnar eru á reiðhjóli, meðalvegalengd sem hver landsmaður hjólar á ári og reiðhjólaeign á heimilum landsmanna.

Þetta bréf og svar LHM er hér að neðan og í fylgiskjali eru þær upplysingar sem LHM sendi ECF um hjólreiðar á Íslandi. Eins og sést eru bréfin á ensku.

2010/11/18 Nastja Kocevar
Hello to Iceland,

We have been intensively looking on good cycling statistics from your country but couldn’t find much (see attachment). Could you help us any further, ideally with links or reference to official statistics?

What is very important for us is eventually to see a positive evolution of cycling in your country. As you probably know, we lobby the EU to put the target of 15 % cycling modal share into the forthcoming White Paper on Transport. We need to back up this target in order to demonstrate that it is ambitious but achievable, by also referring to targets set within national (or regional or local) bicycle master plans.

Thanks for any help.
Best regards,
Nastja Kočevar
Policy Assistant

Dear Nastja

In the attachment I have put in the numbers for Iceland.

In the "Iceland row" I put a shorter version of the statistics but last in the table I put a fuller version with references to the data.

This has been a necessary exercise for the Icelandic Cyclists' Federation (LHM) as we didn't have these numbers compiled and haven't looked in to them closely enough.

I have contacted the State statistical bureau formally with a letter and asked them to compile cycling statistics in the future. I also contacted Gallup and there is a possibility that they have more numbers from other surveys that could be of use to us.

The statistics can best be described as "best estimates" but they are probably close to the truth. I imagine that other country statistics are in some cases similarly compiled.

Regarding cycling use it is obvious that cycling has increased in Iceland generally and in Reykjavik particularly. There are a lot more people on bikes and a lot more bikes outside elementary schools.

I think it is not an overestimate to claim a doubling in cycling in the last few years. The economic crash has had much impact as has increased interest from the public and politicians in Reykjavik. The work of LHM, the Mountain bike club and the LHM bikeability project has encouraged cycling also, we like to think. Much work has been done by these cycling promoters. The bike to work project has through the last decade had a yearly increase in participation. The last few years the increase is ca. 1.000 per year up to 9.400 in the year 2010, roughly 3% of the  population.

with best regards
Árni Davíðsson
chairman

Fylgiskjal - hjólreiðar á Íslandi (pdf 29 kb)