DC area up (NoVa way up) in bike commuting - 2013 ACS Results

The Census' 2013 American Community Survey data is out, and the DC area continues to show gains in bike commuting. In DC, bike commuting when up from 4.1% of all commuters last year to 4.5%, meaning that for the first time, more people bike commute to work than work from home.  Driving is down to 37.6% from 39.7%, walking is up to 13.6% from 11.9%, and transit dropped a little from 38.6% to 38.5%. More people are taking motorcycles or cabs too. 

As a result, DC now has a higher rate of bike commuting than Minneapolis, Seattle and San Francisco. Not that it's a competition. (But if it were, we'd be winning). DC is now the #2 bike commuting major city in the US (behind Portland).

Also, DC has shown the fastest growth in bike commuting.  

Meanwhile,

Arlington is up to 1.7% from 1.2%  and Alexandria is also at 1.7% up from 1.3%. Which is more than a 30% increase for both. 

Silver Spring is up to 0.8% from 0.6% last year. 

Comments

[Greenbelt]

Advice on how best to separate out the bike numbers for local areas would be much appreciated!

[washcycle]

You mean how did I make that chart?

[Greenbelt]

Yeah, like how would I get a similar chart looking at Prince George's or College Park (if that's a big enough jurisdiation) etc.?

[Crickey7]

Clearly, there is some higher plateau that cycling will reach, probably more slowly than the current growth rate. My guess is that few American cities will go much above 8%, and probably none above 10%.

[Greenbelt]

I'd look to maybe Plateau/Montreal for a North American plateau point (so to speak), which probably has close to 10% already. I wouldn't be surprised if DC could above 10% if all the cycletracks in the MoveDC plan were built, since we have better weather for cycling in winter. To get above 10% would require a lot of protected/separated infrastructure to draw in more casual cyclists I would think.

[DE]

It is a competition, and I'm helping, damnit.

I think to get above 10%, you'd also need less sprawl (hard to imagine) or people moving closer to where they work. No one is going to bike from Fredricksburg to DC.

[Greenbelt]

I think 10% for the whole sprawled out region is out of sight for a long, long time -- I was just thinking that 10% or more for DC wouldn't be impossible!

There does seem to be more within-suburb commuting, but nowhere near as much as DC, and lots of it is bike to transit, which would be counted as transit in the ACS survey I think, since it's the longer let in most cases.

[DE]

Although I realize the flaw in that as stated--those would be Fredricksburg numbers, not DC.

4.5% is going to make Courtland very angry.

[washcycle]

Greenbelt.

1. Go to this link http://www.census.gov/acs/www/ and click on "2013 ACS 1 year estimates"

2. In the topic or table box enter "S0801: COMMUTING CHARACTERISTICS BY SEX "

3. In the state, county or Place box put in "Prince George's County"

4. Click Go

5. Click on the "commuting characteristics by sex" link below that.

PG County is 0.4%. College Park is not an option.

[Greenbelt]

Thanks

[Jay Gee]

If DC is at 4.5 with it's current small amount of protected lanes, I look forward to seeing the rate climb much higher as more protected lanes are created. It's exciting.

[Roo_Beav]

Hate to rain on your parade, but you're only talking about the point estimates without considering the margins of error.

2013: 4.5% +/-0.6%
2012: 4.1% +/-0.8%

The sample sizes in the 1-year ACS are too small to meaningfully say for certain that bike commuting is up.

But it sure does feel good to see the number trending up.

[washcycle]

The error bars are moving up. That's good enough for me.

[SJE]

Whatever the real numbers, we can be confidant the cycling to work is more than a short-term fad.

[Allen Muchnick]

Due to the small sample sizes, the year-to-year fluctuations and point-in-time comparisons between similar jurisdictions are not meaningful. However, the general long-term trend of increased bicycle commuting in the core of the DC region is clear.

[Larry Morris]

Top 500 cities in the US where people bike or walk to work:
http://www.towncharts.com/Top-500-Cities-in-the-US-for-People-Who-Bicycle-Or-Walk-To-Work.html