One of my earliest Olympic memories is watching Chris Boardman win cycling gold (in the individual pursuit) in Barcelona in 1992. It stood out because we didn’t win many medals in those days, but also because cycling felt like a bit of a gimmick. How times have changed.

Cycling has now gone mainstream: according to the 2011 Census, out of four million London workers in 2011, 162,000 (4%) travelled to work by bicycle. This may not appear a huge number, but in 2001, out of 3.3 million London workers, only 77,000 or 2.3% did the same. So although the numbers look small, the number of those cycling to work has more than doubled.

In that time we have seen steady improvement in both public provision for cyclists, with cycle lanes and better safety provision and awareness in general, and also private, with landlords and employers upping their cycling provision.

Post-2011 we seem to be seeing further advances from both sides. The cycle superhighways, first announced in 2008, have made significant progress and from a cyclists’ points of view improved things significantly.

Indeed as part of our recent Office Futures research programme, we found that 46% of London office workers, based on a sample of 1,000, were more likely to cycle to work following the increased investment in cycle lanes and cycle superhighways.

Landlords and employers’ understanding of this growing trend is also in evidence. For example, at 7 More London, PWC has replaced all of the car parking with cycle racks, and shower and changing facilities, to support existing cyclists and potentially support more staff looking to travel in this environmentally friendly fashion.

Landlords are also engaging in pre-fit-out activity. The Alphabeta Building in the City, originally developed by Resolution Property, is the UK’s first ‘cycle-in’ office, enabling cyclists to ride in from the street, through the lobby of the building; down a dedicated ramp, and straight to secure bike storage on the ground floor.

However, case studies aside, London’s offices have a long way to go. 25% of our surveyed London employees suggested that they did not cycle to work as their employer “does not provide secure and safe storage or shower facilities”. Whilst a quarter also suggested that they would cycle to work if their employer “offered flexible hours so they could start early/later to miss rush hour traffic”.

Looking forward, then, it would seem that there is plenty to suggest the cycling to work trend will gather steam. However, at what speed would seem to be highly dependent on further expansions in public cycling provision and an expansion of offices’ cycling facilities, both of which will improve only gradually. On the other hand, improving working-hours flexibility costs nothing and can done quickly – some people would call that ‘low-hanging fruit’.