New Data: Bike Commuting Growing Steadily

This morning, the U.S. Census Bureau released the American Community Survey (ACS), revealing new data on bicycle commuting in the United States.

According to the ACS, 0.62% of commutes to work were made by bicycle in 2014, which represents a modest 0.5% increase from 2013. In total, the Census Bureau estimates that there were 904,463 bicycle commuters across the country in 2014. Since 2000, ACS data shows a 62% increase in bicycle commuting. 

Here are some quick facts:

• Portland showed a solid increase to more than 7 percent of its population reporting that it commutes by bike, continuing its reign as the top large city in terms of percentage bike commuters.
• New Orleans’ bike commuter percentage fell ever so slightly to 3.4 percent, but the numbers prove its big jump from 2.4 percent to 3.6 percent from 2012 to 2013 was no fluke.
• Minneapolis rebounded after a down year in 2013 — the data shows 4.7 percent of its population commuted by bike in 2014, following 3.7 percent the year before.
• Washington, D.C.’s percentage of bike commuters went down slightly from 4.5 percent in 2013 to 3.9 percent in 2014. Still, it’s ranked 4th among the 70 largest cities in terms of percentage bike commuters.
• Looking at the gender breakdown, the ACS data shows that the total number of women bike commuters in 2014 grew to 251,790, which is a slight increase from 2013. Last year, 238,052 women reported riding to work regularly.

In coming weeks, we’ll share additional data and details on the demographics of bike commuting in different types and sizes of communities. Today, check out our listing of the 70 largest cities with the highest share of bike commuters, with data going back to 1990. Download the sortable spreadsheet here.

(Photo by Allan Crawford)