Late last year, the Council of Governments presented the results their latest State of the Commute survey. There was nothing too Earth-shattering in it and it was, as usual, hampered by combining walking and biking in most statistics, but it does show - again - a connection between free parking and solo-automobile commuting.
For the region, walking, scootering and biking (WSB) made up 3.3% of all commute trips with nearly half of that (1.4%) biking. Despite all the changes in recent years (dockless scooters for example), a 50% increase in reported benefits and 30% saying it's gotten easier (much higher than any other mode), the WSB percentage is unchanged since 2016.
Bike commuters tend to live close to work and be young, white, male and well-paid (but not exclusively any of those)
17% of people in DC are WSB commuters but only 1% in the MD suburbs and 2% in VA. About 6% of white commuters bike, but only 1% of black or 2% of Hispanic.
For those that don't own a car, 16% WSB commute, but that drops to 2% if the household owns a car.
Average commute distance for bike commuters is 4.2 miles and 24 minutes long.
And of course, WBS commuters are the most happy
The main reasons WSB commuters use their modes are - in order - exercise, avoid stress, save money, save time and flexibility.
And of course, when parking is free - people drive alone much more often. (I would have really preferred a pair of pie charts here).
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