2026 Parliamentary Bike Ride – notes and slides
All-Party Parliamentary Group for Cycling and Walking: Parliamentary Bike Ride 2026
Tuesday 9 June 2026 | Prince Philip House, London
The 2026 Parliamentary Bike Ride took place at Prince Philip House on Tuesday 9 June – MPs, Peers, sponsors, operators, planners and active travel advocates all coming together. The ride was held in partnership with the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and sponsored by Falco, Forest, Lime, Strava and Voi.
Before the ride
Fabian Hamilton MP, Chair of the APPGCW, opened the morning and welcomed the speakers. Annemijn van den Broek, Deputy Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, spoke about the UK-Netherlands partnership and the similarities between the two countries when it comes to cycling ambition.
Sophie Edmundson from Active Travel England and Natasha Ahmed-Walsh from Strava both picked up on the role of data. Their point was simple: better evidence helps make the case for better investment. Alice Pleasant from Lime also pointed to the near 50 per cent increase in cycling journeys in London as a sign that shared bikes are helping more people make everyday journeys by bike.
The main political line came from Lilian Greenwood MP, the Minister for Local Transport, who joined the Bike Ride as minister for the first time. She confirmed that CWIS3 is “imminent” and said she was “thrilled that the department is really picking up the pace on active travel this year.” That gave the event a useful hook and helped underline why the APPGCW’s work is so timely.
After the speeches, the group set off on a 4.5-mile route through central London before returning to Prince Philip House for the APPG meeting.
After the ride: how data can support more cycling
The meeting after the ride was chaired by Fabian Hamilton MP and looked at how data can help make cycling safer, easier and more normal for everyday journeys.
Tom Knights, Senior Manager of Partnerships and Marketing, Strava
Tom talked about Strava Metro, the platform’s free data tool for planners and policymakers. The most striking stat was that 72 per cent of cycling activities uploaded in London last year were commutes rather than leisure rides. TfL has already used Strava data in its work on traffic signals, saving cyclists around 17 seconds per trip and generating around £1 billion in productivity benefits. The tool is free at metro.strava.com.
Alex Berwin, Head of Policy, Forest
Alex shared findings from Forest’s latest rider survey of more than 2,000 users. One of the most interesting points was how many people Forest is bringing into cycling for the first time. Around 20 per cent had never cycled before joining and 73 per cent now cycle more. Among women, nearly a third had rarely or never cycled before.
The safety findings were just as important. 81.5 per cent of riders felt safest in physically segregated lanes and confidence fell sharply when protection dropped. Women were 13 percentage points more likely than men to cite traffic safety as a barrier. Alex’s wider point was that policymakers should measure outcomes, not just kilometres of lane built.
Emma Stubbe, Sustainable Mobility and International Partnerships Advisor, Goudappel
Emma brought a Dutch perspective but kept it grounded in her own experience of cycling in London. Having been hit by cars twice while riding in the capital, she was very clear about what poor infrastructure feels like in practice.
She explained how the Netherlands uses data to shape policy, using the Dutch phrase “meten is weten”, or measuring is knowing. She also made the case for moving away from “predict and provide” planning, where cities assume more car traffic and then build for it. Instead, cities should start with a vision of what they want their streets to feel like and use policy to get there.
Harry Foskin, Senior Public Policy Manager, Voi
Harry talked about how Voi uses data from its services in more than 20 UK towns and cities. The scale is huge, with more than 100 billion data points generated every day and shared transparently with local authority partners in real time.
The Northstowe case study showed what this means in practice. In the first few months of the scheme, data helped Voi and the local authority understand where people wanted to travel, where riders felt unsafe and where parking was needed. Within 18 months, the service had grown from a small launch to thousands of rides a month.
Chris Stewart, Director of Data and Analysis, Active Travel England
Chris rounded off the presentations with an update on what Active Travel England has been building. With more funding now devolved, local authorities are leading on delivery and ATE’s role is to give them the data and tools to do that well.
Those tools include a strategic network planning platform, a national school travel survey, the first in a decade, plus a social prescribing pilot across 13 local authorities. The early results from that pilot show measurable improvements in quality of life. ATE also now has cycling and walking counts at 10,000 locations across England.
What came up in the discussion
There was a useful discussion about getting more women cycling. The data and the lived experience were pointing in the same direction: safety is the main barrier, but confidence matters too. Emma talked about the mental load of cycling in hostile environments. Alex and Harry pointed to practical steps such as lighter shared bikes, women-only safety events with organisations like Cycle Sisters and better-lit parking close to destinations.
A question from the floor raised the risk of broad data hiding the specific barriers faced by disabled people. Chris acknowledged the challenge and stressed that evaluation needs to be built into programmes from the start rather than added at the end.
Finally, several people noted that free cycle training already exists, including Bikeability for adults, but many potential cyclists simply do not know about it. Tom pointed to Strava’s reach, with around one in five UK adults on the platform, as a possible way to get that message out more widely. Operators also confirmed that they contribute to cycle training funding in the areas where they operate.