South City Way delivering record share of journeys by bike in Scotland

Over a 48-hour period in September 2024, traffic surveys recorded 5,457 bikes on the South City Way cycle route on Victoria Road. This was out of a total of 36,417 travel methods recorded, meaning that 15% of people cycled their journey - a new record cycling modal share for an urban street in Scotland.

Overall, 1,718 more bike journeys were recorded on the South City Way over the two-day survey period in September 2024, compared to the same period in September 2023. This is a 46% year-on-year growth in the number of cycle journeys along the route.

Illustrating the wider impact of the route, cycling was recorded as accounting for 4.3% of journeys on nearby Nithsdale Road, which has no safe cycle lanes, but which connects the nearby area of Pollokshields to the South City Way. The number of people cycling on Nithsdale Road increased by 45% from September 2023 to September 2024, with nearby Allison Street also recording a 22% increase in cycling over the same period. 

Glasgow's South City Way is one of the most ambitious urban cycle routes in the country. Running for 3km, the route's fully separated, on-street cycle lanes provide a high-quality, direct link from Queen's Park to Trongate in the city centre in just 14 minutes. The route was developed by the council and Sustrans, with funding from Sustrans' Places for Everyone Programme.

Cllr Angus Millar, Convener for Transport and Climate at Glasgow City Council said: "The continued growth in the number of people using the South City Way demonstrates that when we build safe, segregated and accessible active travel infrastructure, Glaswegians will come and make use of it.

"It's clear that rebalancing our roads by adding active travel infrastructure helps people feel more at ease when cycling and leads to a roads network that's fairer for everyone. We know that many people only feel comfortable choosing the bike for everyday journeys where they have confidence that they can make use of safe, segregated cycle infrastructure for most or all of their route.

"With the recent completion of the final phase of the South City Way to Candleriggs in the city centre and ongoing work to extend the active travel network with the Connecting Battlefield project, the success of this key corridor is a great blueprint for Glasgow as we work to deliver our plans for a comprehensive City Network of segregated cycle infrastructure to connect communities across the city."

Keith Irving, Chief Executive of Cycling Scotland, said: "This is yet more evidence that when Scotland builds high quality cycling infrastructure, it gets more people cycling. Given that cycling journeys typically account for around 2% of traffic on urban streets, the fact we are now seeing four to seven times that number of journeys being cycled on these routes - together with the huge growth in cycling numbers - shows just what can be achieved when Scotland invests in safe cycling routes.

"Road safety is the single biggest barrier to more people cycling, and the strong success of these landmark routes demonstrates clearly that investing in well-connected, dedicated cycling lanes is having an impact: helping more people to travel safely and affordably, benefiting our health, reducing harmful pollution and our impact on the climate. We need more safe cycling routes just like these, to bring the benefits to more people across Scotland."

Cycling Scotland Traffic Surveys

Cycling Scotland organises traffic surveys across Scotland to monitor changes in travel behaviour - working in partnership with all 32 local authorities at over 100 locations. The surveys are organised twice a year in May and September, and count all modes of traffic on roads, footways and pavements over a 48-hour period on Wednesdays and Thursdays.

These nationwide traffic surveys help to track changes in modal share, highlighting how new high-quality cycle routes such as the South City Way are supporting more people to make sustainable journeys.

Video cameras are mounted onto existing street furniture. The cameras film at a low quality so no personal identifying information can be detected. The surveys have been running in some locations since 2017.

The most recent South City Way data was collected by a 48-hour traffic survey conducted between 18-19 September 2024.

For more information you can read the full Cycling Scotland news feature which was published on 6 March 2025.