The 2010 numbers for the American Community Survey are out and it's a mixed bag on bike commuting. I should preface this by saying there is a wide range of error on these numbers.
Nationally, bike commuting is at 0.5% down from 0.55% in 2009. It might be down very little, it's hard to say since they aren't carrying the number out to as many significant figures as in 2009. But it does appear to be down a bit.
Meanwhile, DC is up to 3.1% compared to 2.17% in 2009. That tops the 2008 value of 2.3% as well. That's a very big increase.
Arlington and Silver Spring are also up. Arlington's at 1.4% compared to 0.88% in 2009. Silver Spring is up to 0.7% from 0.27% the year before.
Alexandria, however, is down - to 0.7% from 1.29% in 2009.
Statewide, Maryland and Virginia are at 0.2% and 0.3% respectively. Baltimore is at 0.7%, Frederick is at 0.4% and Richmond is at 2.2%.
Cool! So... I guess we should be spending 3% of the transportation budget on dedicated bike infrastructure, right?
:)
Posted by: oboe | September 23, 2011 at 10:03 AM
Let's go for 10% by 2020!
Alexandria's numbers should increase if they sign onto CaBi. Arlington's numbers will continue to improve as the new stations are rolled out over the next year.
Posted by: Michael H. | September 23, 2011 at 10:42 AM
In addition to the large margin of error, you should note the cause. It's due to the extremely small sample size.
For D.C., 3,819 households were asked this question in 2010: "How did this person usually get to work LAST WEEK? If this person usually used more than one method of transportation during the trip, mark the box of the one used for most of the distance."
There are 266,707 in D.C.
Posted by: Steven Vance | September 23, 2011 at 11:08 AM
I really hate these numbers. As others have pointed out, there are not reliable.
And I get upset when we look at bike-commuting. Getting to work on a bike isn't great. Using it for other errands: great.
I doubt Cabi has a significant increase. In DC, with 1000 bikes, you might get 750 people "to work". The point isn't communting, it is gettting people to ride more.
That being said, I was curious abotu the Richmond numbers.
Posted by: charlie | September 23, 2011 at 11:52 AM
Steve,
Sample size relative to population size is irrelevant. Only sample size determines margin of error, and 3,819 is a very large sample size.
Posted by: dayglo | September 23, 2011 at 12:32 PM
The phrasing of the question, though, is a problem. If I bike to work once per week, I am commuting by bike 20% of the time. But apparently I don't "count" as a bike commuter since I would have to answer that I did not "usually" get to work via bike.
Posted by: Purple Eagle | September 23, 2011 at 01:24 PM
There are many flaws in the data, but I think it can still be used to show general trends.
Posted by: washcycle | September 23, 2011 at 01:56 PM
@purple eagle:
The other problem with the way the question is worded is that if a commuter rides his or her bike three miles to the Metro every day, then rides the Metro four miles to get to the office, then that person is also not a bike commuter.
Posted by: Casey Anderson | September 23, 2011 at 03:10 PM
Dont forget weather. If I bike to work 4 times a week, and "last week" it rained 3 days, meaning I only biked twice...Im not a bike commuter anymore!
Car/metro riders rarely make decisions based on weather.
Posted by: JJJJJ | September 23, 2011 at 03:34 PM