Winter? Pah!

It's May and it's beautiful outside. Still a bit chilly first thing in the morning with that weird cold air / warm sun arrangement. Makes it difficult to know exactly what to wear.
One thing's for sue is that the overshoes, snood, thermal tights have been abandoned to the bottom of the 'drobe for another year. Yes, spring is finally here.
As it turns out, winter wasn't as bad for cycling as you'd expect. According to this piece on BikeBiz from the cycle to work alliance [whoever they are] cycling commuter numbers were actually up year on year to 'unprecedented' levels.
They reckon they have the evidence for it but, call me a cynical old fool, sounds like a bit of PR puffery for the alliance members to me - most of whom are bike retailers.

I mean, how would they know, really know, that 20 per cent more people cycled to work this winter over last? And this is on top of a 9 per cent growth reported the previous year.
Logistically, it's just impossible to understand behavior in that detail in my humble view. 
Ah, but its based on statistics, probabilities extrapolated to provide an answer within a margin of error either way. Well, maybe, but I'd like to see a bit of the data behind the headline before I start believing everything I read.