Thursday Morning Commute - Just one

Good morning

• Again, I'm skeptical of the conclusions one can draw by comparing one count for one year versus one count from another, such as "the growth in cycling is slowing in DC."  But over a ten year span, ten counts seem to show that biking is growing. The article does have some interesting facts though, like "more cyclists used the 15th Street cycle track in the latest counts than exited off the Capital Crescent Trail" and "this year's count found that Capital Bikeshare represented only 1 percent to 12 percent of the bikes spotted at the 19 counting locations."

Comments

[T]

The next big move forward will be when the fed gives some sort of incentive for bicycling to work similar to the Metro checks they give for folks. Imagine if they said we'll ensure every federal building has a shower, secure bicycle locking facility and we will chip in $25 a month toward bike maintenance at an LBS (and they could even say we're taking out $50 of your Metro benefit for it). I actually think you would drastically increase ridership as folks would say that the cost of maintenance is entirely covered, they can get cleaned up, and workouit at the sametime. Alas, this is a pipe dream.

I would believe the 15th St Cycletrack stat. I'm usually riding against the grain (heading north on it in mornings) and I see long lines of cyclists 10-15 deep, even in the winter. When I started cycling commuting there were few folks coming down it.

[Chris Eatough, BikeArlington Program Manager]

Re T: This pipe dream is actually not far from the reality. Many fed agencies, as well as many businesses, provide showers/secure bike parking/$20 per month bike benefit. The main thing missing is legislation does not currently allow the bike benefit and the transit benefit at the same time.

[MM]

I'd like to see a count done in the winter months. Yes, bike usage goes down, but in some ways I wonder if looking at trends during the winter would provide a more accurate picture of the growth of cycling as a true alternative form of transportation. Not that it's bad that most people likely are fair-weather cyclists, but if most of cycling's growth is among people who go back to their cars/metro when the temperature drops, then we should be adapting advocacy efforts accordingly.

[washcycle]

MM, we can kind of interpolate that. CaBi stats can give a very good reference for the change in biking in the winter - especially if you only look at the morning commute (the evening commute probably has more statistical interference from tourists).

[Michael H.]

In my occasional, non-comprehensive survey of the 15th St. cycle track at evening rush hour, I've seen that about 20-25% of ALL the traffic on 15th St. was bike traffic.

Obviously there are day-to-day fluctuations.

I decided to do this after reading about the guy who complained that no one was using the L St. cycle track. I looked at the L St. cycle track. Then I decided to look at the 15th St. cycle track too, and compare the number of bikes to the number of cars.

At some points, there were so many cyclists riding past that I could barely keep track. (Everyone was moving at a reasonable and safe speed. It's just hard to count manually when 10 cyclists ride by in a short amount of time.)