FIVE QUESTIONS WITH EXPERT RYAN CURLE

z Have you noticed an increase in people wanting to cycle at your club?

I’m a co-road captain at the Brixton Cycling Club – I speak to people who are interested in joining our club, organise rides and alongside the rest of the committee, help organise wider club events and initiatives.

We’re affiliated with the Brixton Cycles Shop, and a lot of people hear about the club through them.

Every week, we get around eight new people contacting us about joining and are currently welcoming about 15 new members a month to join us.

We currently stand at about 350 members, which sounds a lot but in fact makes us one of the smaller clubs! z Why should we cycle? Cycling can be great for short journeys of just a few miles. Over half of all car journeys are under five miles.

Of course, it depends where you live, and your confidence, but it can be very convenient for some journeys.

z Why do you think people are turning to cycling now?

The current cost of living crisis I’m sure is having an impact. With fuel prices so high, perhaps it’s making people think about how many journeys they could do by cycling, walking, or doing car pools.

There is so many options that we can choose from.

We need to create more space to make walking and cycling easier, and public transport more convenient for people living outside of London. z What do you love about cycling? For me, I really enjoy being outside – it gives a huge mental health boost.

It’s great to get out of London and onto some quieter roads, experience more of the changing seasons and all of that kind of thing.

It’s also been a good social outlet for me, and I’ve met a lot of amazing people during the four years I’ve been a member of Brixton. z How can people can get started? It’s worth seeing if your employer offers the Cycle to Work scheme, which allows you to purchase bikes and equipment tax-free via salary sacrifice. You can save a bit of money.

There are also companies like Swapfiets and Buzzbike which offer bikes on subscription, and if anything goes wrong, they’ll handle it.