THE number of people cycling in Scotland increased in almost every month of the last year as coronavirus lockdown restrictions led to a boom in biking, according to a national organisation.

Cycling Scotland uses a network of 47 automatic cycle counters across the country to compile data on biking.

It found there were 47% more cycling journeys recorded in the last 12 months compared with the same period in 2019-20. There were increases of 68% in April, 77% in May, 63% in June, 44% in July and 33% in August.

September saw a rise of 32%, followed by October (22%), November (7%) and December (4%). In January 2021, cycling numbers decreased 14% – which the charity attributes to bad winter weather – before a rise of 20% in February.

The stats show the number of people cycling in the first three weeks of March was up 52% on the same period last year, prior to the coronavirus lockdown.