Cycling policy often suffers less from a lack of ideas than from a lack of comparable data. One city counts cycle lanes, another tracks total network length, and a third may have better visibility into parking or bike sharing. That is why the European Commission’s Cycling Counts study matters.
The study establishes an EU-wide baseline across four areas: the cycle network, cycle use, cyclist safety and cycling-related services. It gives policymakers, municipalities and mobility businesses a shared language for planning everyday cycling.
According to the Commission, the study identified more than 900,000 km of cycling paths and lanes accessible to cyclists at EU level. It also found that almost 24 percent of EU residents cycle at least once per week, while noting that national survey methods still vary.
Services are part of the picture too. Across almost 300 European cities with at least 150,000 inhabitants, bike-sharing systems are present in the vast majority of them, with a combined fleet estimated at about 300,000 bikes. Data on cycle parking and cycle logistics, however, remains much thinner.
For Latvia, this kind of baseline is practical. Better data can show where safe connections are missing, where parking matters more than another lane, and where cycling can become normal daily transport rather than only a seasonal habit.