The city council last week hailed “positive new data on walking, wheeling and cycling” published as it marked completion of the latest phase of the Leith Connections active travel scheme.

It said the data from the Walk Wheel Cycle Trust (WWCT) – formerly Sustrans – showed that 69 per cent of Edinburgh residents walked or wheeled at least five days a week.

But it did not mention that the proportion cycling at least five days a week was just 6 per cent – down from 9 per cent in the previous survey. Nor did it mention that those who cycled at least once a week was now 18 per cent, down from 22 per cent in 2023 and 26 in 2021.

Tory councillor Jason Rust said the council had spent a lot of money on infrastructure to encourage people to cycle, but at the same time there had been a significant drop in people cycling.

He said: “There’s a lot of spin on the council’s part, just skirting over that. If there is decline we need to understand why.

“Given that budgets across the board are tight and taxpayers are feeling the pinch, we want to ensure money is being allocated in a way that we get the most out of it. And if we want to encourage people to cycle we need to see why current schemes, on the face of it, are just not working.”

The latest WWCT data, which is for 2025, also found the number of people who do not cycle but would like to, at 25 per cent was the same as in 2021 and up from 23 per cent in 2021.

Those who do not cycle and do not want to was 39 per cent in 2025, up from 35 per cent in 2023 and 31 per cent in 2021.

Meanwhile, those who regularly cycle was 13 per cent in 2025, a decline from 16 per cent in 2023 and 17 per cent in 2021. And those who occasionally cycle was 17 per cent in 2025, down from 20 per cent in 2023 and 22 per cent in 2021.

Paul Bailey, who has long campaigned over traffic measures in Morningside’s Braid estate, said: “The Walk Wheel Cycle Trust has produced a glossy booklet saying how wonderful it all is, but it in’t wonderful at all.

“There seems to be a desire to put in as many cycle lanes as possible. But the infrastructure which has been installed over the past six years has not increased overall cycling numbers.”

In response to the claim of a cover-up, transport convener Stephen Jenkinson said on the whole the picture for active travel was positive.

But he acknowledged: “In regard to cycling, there has been a downturn in numbers and that needs to be understood.”

He said: “I’m a big fan of statistics. We need to understand why there has been dip and we need to know whether its is a dip or a trend. If we were on a downward trajectory that would be concerning.

“Significant investment has gone into infrastructure and as part of that it is reasonable to expect modal shift. If it is a trend rather than a blip, we need to understand the reason for that.

“I do want to encourage more people out of their cars and cycling is an important element of that. If the data and the evidence is telling you something different, you have to adjust.”

He said he would be interested to see next set of data which he hoped would reflect the impact of the new cycle hire scheme.

“We have built infrastructure to make cycling more accessible and safer for people who already cycle, but ultimately what we are looking to do is encourage modal shift. The way to do that is make it cheaper and accessible to more people and that’s why we introduced the new cycle hire scheme.”