The League of American Bicyclists recently created some cool infographics about bicycle commuter growth across the country.
In general, bike commuting has skyrocketed, doubling from 1.7 billion in 2001 to 4 billion in 2009. However, the growth has occurred to a much greater degree in cities and towns that have been designated as Bicycle-Friendly Communities by the League.
“From 2000 to 2011, the bicycle commuting rate has risen 80% in the largest Bicycle Friendly Communities — far above the average growth of 47% nationwide and more than double the rate of 32% in the cities not designated as bicycle-friendly,” Carolyn Szczepanski the League writes.
Several cities have even seen growth of 100% to 450% [PDF]!
Want more data? Carolyn’s rounded some up for you:
Looking for bike commute data for your area?
- Click here to download 2010 bicycle commuting data for all 375 citiesincluded in the American Community Survey
- Click here to download bicycle commute data from 1990 to 2011 for the 70 largest U.S. cities, including percentage of bicycle commuters and percent change
- Click here for 2011 state commute rates, including bicycle commuting by gender
Great information. Thanks for posting. Just one note of caution – when looking at data from the American Community Survey, remember that these are sample data and contain margins of error. When looking at trends, you’ll want to test differences for statistical significance. Changes up or down from year to year may simply be due to sampling error and not reflect real changes in behavior. Thanks again for posting.
Good points, thanks.
And there are also *big* limitations with the survey that probably discount actual bike commuting.