43% Increase in Bicycle Commuting Since 2000

According to the US Census Bureau’s 2008 American Community Survey (ACS), released today, 0.55% of American workers use a bicycle as the primary means of getting to work. This is up 14 percent since 2007, 36 percent from the first ACS in 2005, and 43 percent since the 2000 Census. See the League of American Bicyclists’ analysis of the numbers for the 70 largest US cities and the 50 states. You can look up this information for hundreds of communities and all of the states using the American Fact Finder.

Percent of Americans who bike to work
2000 Census: 0.38%
2005: 0.40%
2006: 0.45%
2007: 0.48%
2008: 0.55%

Percent Change
2000 to 2008: 43.40%
2005 to 2008: 35.80%
2007 to 2008: 14.30%

NOTES: The ACS numbers are estimated by the Census bureau based on samples taken year-round. The numbers in the tables above are rounded, if you calculate the percentages based on the rounded numbers, you’ll get different values than are presented in the second table.

~Darren Flusche, League Policy Analyst