Driving to work is costing Leeds motorists £2,000 a year

The average annual work-related parking and petrol expenses in the city are estimated to be £1,932 per person – around £300 more than the UK norm.

Parking for work in Leeds costs an average of £1,409 per year. The figure has been obtained by bike retailer and manufacturer Ribble Cycles from Just Park, Europe’s leading provider of pre-bookable parking.

A commuter travelling by car to work in Leeds can also expect to spend an average of £523 a year on petrol, according to the Department of Energy.

Ribble Cycles chief marketing officer Matthew Lawson said: “The cost of commuting to work each day in Leeds is expensive, and with petrol and rail fare prices increasing, it is set to get worse.

“Many commuters feel this is an unavoidable cost, but it needn’t be if they opt to cycle to work instead.”

A new 23km segregated cycle superhighway linking Leeds and Bradford is set to open shortly. The scheme has not been without its critics but it is hoped it will lead to an additional 9,000 daily trips by bike along the Leeds-Bradford corridor by 2020.