Millennials, Londoners, and Tuesdays on top in new commuter data from Strava

Millennials and Londoners are the most active cycling commuters, and Tuesday is the day on which most people cycle to work, according to new data from Strava.

Under its Strava Metro arm, the fitness platform collects insights to support active travel organisations, and has released UK-based commuter statistics as part of its Earth Day initiative: Commute to Curb Carbon.

The findings show that London is the clear frontrunner for commuting in the UK, with 63% of cyclists on Strava uploading a bike commute in the capital in the past year. Bristol is the second most commuter-active UK city with 55% of riders tagging a commute, followed by Edinburgh (50%), Cambridge (43%) and Manchester (42%).

Leading the way on the ride to work are millennials, the generation currently between 30 and 39 years of age. They account for 33% of the total volume of bike commuters and more than half 56% of them uploaded commutes last year.

Read more: Top tips for cycling to work: Beginner's guide to commuting by bike

It’s noteworthy that women are generally more inclined to commute than men. Male commuters outnumber female commuters but as a share, the percentage of Strava users who uploaded bike commutes in 2023 was higher for women than for men in the most popular commuting cities mentioned above. The difference was most stark in Bristol, where 50% of female Strava users uploaded a commute, compared to 47% of male users, while in London the figure was 53% vs 52% and in Edinburgh 44% vs 42%.

As for the timings of these commutes, one interesting insight pinpointed Tuesday as the most popular commuting day. Monday morning is a time when motivation is notoriously hard to muster, and this data suggests the post-weekend blues affect our inclination to ride to work. By Tuesday morning, however, that motivation is highest, with 7am the most popular time to start a commute.

Despite this early start time, commuting distances are generally below 10km, suggesting that workers are clocking on earlier than 9am. The median distance in London in 2023 was 9.2km, with Manchester at 8.8km and Bristol and Edinburgh both on 6.9km.

A supplementary survey from Strava found that the biggest motivation for cycling to work was the exercise it enables, while more than half of respondents also cited environmental reasons.

On that note, Strava revealed that bike commutes logged on the platform in 2023 saved the weight of more than 4,000 London buses in CO2 emissions. That’s 52,993,433kg of CO2 that would have been produced if those journeys were undertaken by car, equivalent to more than 35 million car journeys.

Read more: Commuting errors – 10 mistakes all cyclists make riding to work

Strava’s data provides some interesting insights but it’s worth pointing out that it does not represent the complete picture of commuting in the UK, given not all those who cycle to work will use Strava, and some may not have taken the step to tag their rides as commutes.

As part of Strava's Commute to Curb Carbon challenge, users are encouraged to tag their commutes, which will allow them to see their estimated carbon savings.

"We are launching a new commute Challenge to encourage our global community to explore active travel," said Strava Metro's Tom Knights.

"By providing more visibility on carbon savings, we look to inspire individual action towards a common goal of reducing carbon emissions globally. "

Strava

Strava is an online app that allows users to track their activities and share them with others. It connects over 100 million athletes across a global online community.