When Does London Cycle? 9,600 Rides, Hour by Hour

London's busiest hour for setting off on a bike is 6pm on a weekday. In 9,613 London rides navigated with Cyclemate between May and September 2026, 39% of weekday rides started between 4 and 8pm, more than twice the 18% that started in the 7 to 10am rush. Weekends look nothing like weekdays: 58% of rides start between 10am and 5pm, peaking at 1pm. The typical ride is short, about 5 km and 22 minutes, and 87% are under 10 km. Set against police collision records, the morning rush stands out. It carries 18% of weekday rides in our sample but 24% of the weekday collisions that injure a cyclist.

What time of day do Londoners cycle?

On weekdays, riding follows the working day, but not symmetrically. There is a sharp morning peak in the hour from 8am (8% of weekday rides), a steady lunchtime plateau, and then a much larger evening peak: 11% of rides start in the hour from 5pm and 13% in the hour from 6pm. Riding stays busy until 8pm and tails off slowly after that. 14% of rides start after 8pm.

Why is the evening so much bigger than the morning? Partly because these are navigated rides. People do not need directions for a commute they ride every day, so the morning trip to work is under-counted here. The evening is when people go somewhere new: a friend's place, a restaurant, a gig, a different way home. That is also the ride where a safe route is least likely to be one you already know.

Switch the chart to weekends and the two peaks merge into one broad hump. Rides build from 8am, 58% start between 10am and 5pm, and the busiest hour is 1pm.

How far do people cycle in London?

Not far. The typical ride in our sample is about 5 km and takes 22 minutes. The most common distance is 2 to 4 km, which covers a quarter of all rides. 59% of rides are under 6 km, and 87% are under 10 km. Rides over 20 km are fewer than one in a hundred.

This matters for anyone who thinks of cycling as a sport. Most London cycling is transport: trips short enough that the alternative is a bus or a few Tube stops. At 5 km, a bike is usually the fastest way across the city, door to door. It also means a safer route rarely costs much. A detour that adds 10% to a 5 km ride adds two minutes.

Which day of the week is busiest for cycling?

Saturday, narrowly. It accounts for 15.4% of rides, against 13.6% on Monday, the quietest day. The more striking finding is how flat the week is: every day carries between 13% and 16% of rides. Londoners ride for getting around every day of the week, not only for the commute or only for weekend leisure. Switch the chart above to "Day of week" to see it.

When is it most dangerous to cycle, compared with when people ride?

This is where the two datasets meet. The chart below shows weekday rides from our sample and weekday collisions from Transport for London's records, each as a share of its own total, so their shapes can be compared directly.

The evening peak looks the same in both: lots of riding, lots of collisions, in proportion. The morning does not. The three hours from 7 to 10am carry 18% of weekday rides in our sample, but 24% of weekday collisions that injure a cyclist. The hour from 8am is the single worst hour of the week for collisions, with more than the hour from 6pm, even though far more of our rides start at 6pm.

Some of that gap is the under-counted morning commute described above, so treat it as a signal and not a measurement. But it fits what riders tell us. Morning traffic is denser and more hurried, deliveries and school runs share the road, and in winter the sun is low. If your morning route uses a main road, it is the ride most worth re-planning. We looked at exactly which roads and junctions are involved in Is cycling in London safe?.

What this means for your ride

• Re-plan your commute once. It is the ride you repeat most, at the hour with the most collisions. A quieter line costs a couple of minutes on a typical 5 km trip. Try it in the route planner.
• Plan the evening ride you do not know. Most navigated rides happen after 4pm, to places that are not part of a routine.
• If you ride after dark, read Cycling in London at night for what changes once the light goes.

Notes and sources

• Ride data: 9,613 completed rides in London navigated with the Cyclemate app between 14 May and 14 September 2026. We excluded rides under 500 metres, under 3 minutes or over 6 hours. Hours are London local time and refer to when the ride started.
• Privacy: this post contains no information about any individual ride or rider. Every figure is a share of all rides, grouped by hour of day, day of week or 2 km distance band. No locations, routes, dates or rider details were used.
• Who the sample is: people who chose to navigate a ride with a cycling app during one summer. It under-counts habitual trips such as a regular commute, contains no winter riding, and is not a count of all cycling in London. For that, see Transport for London's cycling data.
• Collision data: Transport for London road-collision records, compiled from police reports, for weekdays from 2021 to 2025: 19,894 collisions in which a cyclist was injured.
• Method: aggregated by Cyclemate on 19 September 2026.