More on the 2012 ACS Results

Earlier I reported that bike commuting was way up in DC, from 3.2% to 4.1%. That's true. But when looking at the other modes, it appears that the increase almost entirely came from transit. 

Here's year to year data

Mode            2011        2012

Driving           39.6%      39.7%

Transit           39.6%      38.6%

Walk             11.8%      11.9%

Bike               3.2%        4.1%

Other             1.1%         1.0%

Tele               4.8%         4.6%

The only modes that saw much change were biking and transit. That doesn't mean it's a wash. Biking has advantages such as health and congestion mitigation that transit may not have, and moving people off of transit helps to deal with crowding and allows for delays in buying new vehicles. Furthermore, in DC it may make more room for suburban commuters so that total transit use doesn't drop much. Still, it would be better if biking were moving people out of cars. 

Also, both Maryland and Virginia had 0.4% bike commuting state-wide, up from 0.3%. PG County was at 0.3% putting it below the state average.

Update: It's also worth pointing out that this survey is done in April. So the 2011 data would not really include the uptick in biking from CaBi yet. The 2012 data is the first real post-Capital Bikeshare data.

Comments

[Mike]

I think the bike boom is helped by metro's service collapse

[ACyclistInTheSuburbs]

Mike - to confirm that I'd have to see FFX and MoCo transit numbers. Metrorail hasn't been thriving, but its not like the stations and trains aren't crowded.

[washcycle]

Furthermore, passenger miles matter too. Getting someone in DC to switch from the bus for a mile to a bike for a mile is more than offset by someone in Montgomery who takes the bus for 5 miles instead of driving. Transportation is a regional thing and looking at just DC can give some odd results. Ideally we would be able to look at how people who commute less than 5 miles get to work. That's the target audience for biking.

[JJJJJ]

Mike is right. You can only take so many 20 minute transfers before giving up on Metro

[washcycle]

If users were being pushed off of Metro (by bad service) we would expect to see all other modes go up and largely in proportion to their remaining shares.

But instead we see almost everything else remain the same. I think it's more likely that people are being enticed off of Metro by bikes (which are really bicycle transit).

But it could be a little of push and a little of pull.

[T]

I switched in those years from driving/metro to almost solely biking. Probably one of the best things ever for me.

While that's only anecdotal, it does mean that there is some of that change out there.

I would be very surprised if more people were actually driving to work as that number indicates (albeit one tenth of one percent).

[Mike]

metrorail ridership has been down year over year for a few years now; presumably those people are going somewhere.

[JJ]

ACS data is collected continuously throughout the year. (It used to be the old decennial long form but was spun off into its own survey after the 2000 census).