‘Greenlink’ cycling route in the north of Motherwell sees a 69% increase in the number of people cycling over the first three months of 2025 vs the same period in 2024
National cycle counter data shows big growth in the number of people travelling by bike on the Greenlink cycle route in Motherwell. It’s among 34 locations across Scotland seeing increases of over 30% in the number of cycle journeys in winter 2024-25 compared with the previous year.
The Greenlink – a 7km walking and cycling path connecting Strathclyde Country Park to Motherwell Town Centre – saw 1,710 cycle journeys in January, February and March 2025, compared to 1,011 cycle journeys in the same period in 2024, a 69% increase.
Year-on-year increases in cycling were observed at urban and rural locations in Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Clackmannanshire, East Dunbartonshire, East Lothian, Edinburgh, Glasgow, the Highlands, Inverclyde, Moray, North Ayrshire, North Lanarkshire, Perth and Kinross, South Lanarkshire and Stirling, following analysis by Cycling Scotland, the national cycling charity for Scotland.
Significant year-on-year increases in cycling were observed at urban and rural locations in Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Clackmannanshire, East Dunbartonshire, East Lothian, Edinburgh, Glasgow, the Highlands, Inverclyde, Moray, North Ayrshire, North Lanarkshire, Perth and Kinross, South Lanarkshire and Stirling.
Data was captured through more than 800 automatic cycle counters managed by Cycling Scotland, local authorities and partner organisations.
Councillor Helen Loughran, Convener of the Environment and Climate Change Committee said: “We are pleased to see a positive trend in cycling within the Motherwell area after significant investment in active travel infrastructure over recent years. We are keen to do all we can to promote further positive trends in walking, wheeling and cycling across North Lanarkshire.”
Nick Montgomery, Monitoring and Development Manager at Cycling Scotland, said: “To see significant winter to winter increases in cycling is very promising, especially as the growth is close to locations that have seen improvements for cycling in recent years.
“What we see from the data is that where local authorities are investing in protected cycle lanes and improved networks of cycling routes, there are big increases in people travelling by bike. Future improvements would support even more people to benefit from cycling as a healthy, affordable, and environmentally friendly way of getting around.”
Explanation of methodology:
- The findings follow a comparative analysis of data from more than 800 automatic cycle counters covering all 32 Scottish local authorities across Scotland, including 100 counters managed by Cycling Scotland through the National Monitoring Framework. Cycle counts from January, February and March 2024 were compared with counts from the same period in 2025, to identify locations seeing significant increases in cycling from one winter to the next. Data from February 29th 2024 was excluded to ensure that each time period had equal number of days to allow for a comparative analysis.
- Further data on cycle rates in Scotland can be found on the Cycling Open Data portal.
