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Where We Ride 2014: Analysis of Bike Commuting
In our third edition of “Where We Ride: An Analysis of Bicycling in American Cities” we take a look at the growth of bicycle commuters throughout the country, based on new data from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey.
We dissect broad trends, like where among large cities bike commuting is growing fastest, and take on and more granular analyses, like which cities are exploding with bike commuters by region and size.
In this report, we take a look at:
- How all 50 states rank according to bicycle commuters as a share of all commuters;
- How cities with a high percentage of bicycle commuters compare to other cities in their regions;
- How cities compare based upon multimodal commuters, looking beyond just bikes to other forms of transportation that involve more physical activity, including walking and transit;
- And for the first time this year, we teamed up with the Alliance for Biking & Walking to take a look at the rate of growth among walk commuters.
Last month, we reported on the broad results from this data: There was a modest increase of 0.5% from 2013 to 2014 in the percentage bike commuters nationwide. Since 2000, that percentage has grown by 62% nationally.
ABOUT THE DATA SOURCE
The data in this report is based on estimates provided by the American Community Survey based upon answers to the above question. Each year 1 in 38 households receives an invitation to complete the ACS, you can learn more about the ACS process here. There are at least two limitations to the data: 1) it only measures how someone “usually” gets to work in the “last week” before the question was asked, and 2) it only captures the mode used for the most distance. These limitations mean that occasional bike commuters and multimodal commuters who use bikes are unlikely to be captured by ACS data.
This report relies on 2014 1-year estimates and other 1-year estimates to facilitate change-over-time comparisons. There are margins of error for every data sample, ACS included. Because of the limits of the sample size, some of the margins of error are considerable. For more specific information on those margins of error and our methodology, you may consult the American Community Survey website.
Interested in learning more? Please contact me at [email protected] if you have questions or would like more data.