Bike commuting rose in 2008. That's good news if you believe in the Virtuous Cycle — the theory that there's safety in numbers for bicycle riders.
An estimated 786,098 people rode their bicycles to work in 2008, or about 1/2 of one percent of the nation's workforce, according to data contained in the US Census Bureau's 2008 American Community Survey.
The Portland metropolitan area (which includes Beaverton, Oregon, and Vancouver, Washington) once again led other metro areas for bike commuting, and Oregon led the 50 states.
Comparing data with previous years, the League of American Bicyclists says that those bike commuters nationwide represent a 14.3% increase over 2007 and a 43.4% increase from the year 2000.
Mining information
I guess what's surprising is not that 0.54% of workers 16 and older commuted by bike, it's that 75.5% of the workforce commuted in their cars — alone. Data estimates that 10.7% carpooled, while 5% used public transportation and 2.8% walked. Others took taxis, ferries, trains or simply worked at home.
As with all statistics taken from a limited sample, there are margins of errors for various categories; the smaller the sample the larger the margin of error. All the information can be culled from the US Census Bureau American FactFinder.
That's where I spent Tuesday afternoon, mining some more information about how people get to work; the census calls it “means of transportation”.
Men and women
The first thing I discovered was that men represented a greater percentage of bike commuters than women, by a ratio of nearly 3 to 1. Scientific American recently wrote on the subject of male and female bicycling (not just bike commuting) and concluded that a higher percentage of women cyclists signifies a more bike-friendly atmosphere.
Women are considered an “indicator species” for bike-friendly cities for several reasons. First, studies across disciplines as disparate as criminology and child rearing have shown that women are more averse to risk than men. In the cycling arena, that risk aversion translates into increased demand for safe bike infrastructure as a prerequisite for riding.
In the 2008 data, the states where the highest percentage of bike commuters are women are Vermont (45%), Rhode Island (41%) and Maine (40%). Based on the Scientific American article, you could draw the conclusion that those northeastern states are the most bike friendly. But remember that a small sample size can have a larger margin of error. The states with the lowest percentage are Tennessee (13%), Nevada (11%) and Mississippi (7%).
Nationwide, women represent about 24% of all bike commuters.
Popular bike commute states
Among the 50 states, Oregon has the highest percentage of bike commuters at 2.3%. That's more than 4 times the national average. That's no surprise given that two population centers in the state — Portland and Eugene — have a thriving bicycle culture.
Here are all the states, including District of Columbia and Puerto Rico (the national average is 0.545%). Except for D.C., the West blows everyone away in the top 10:
| State | % | |
| 1. | District of Columbia | 2.334833 |
| 2. | Oregon | 2.091982 |
| 3 | .Idaho | 1.516836 |
| 4 | .Montana | 1.449877 |
| 5 | .Colorado | 1.249676 |
| 6 | .New Mexico | 1.019163 |
| 7 | .Wyoming | 1.015782 |
| 8 | .California | 0.994617 |
| 9 | .Hawaii | 0.954369 |
| 10 | .Washington | 0.905223 |
| 11 | .Arizona | 0.865028 |
| 12 | .Minnesota | 0.864148 |
| 13 | .Alaska | 0.823371 |
| 14 | .North Dakota | 0.819927 |
| 15 | .Wisconsin | 0.737054 |
| 16 | .Massachusetts | 0.715799 |
| 17 | .Utah | 0.711098 |
| 18 | .Vermont | 0.645284 |
| 19 | .Florida | 0.601341 |
| 20 | .Illinois | 0.536436 |
| 21 | .Maine | 0.528803 |
| 22 | .South Dakota | 0.515014 |
| 23 | .Iowa | 0.482668 |
| 24 | .Nebraska | 0.472913 |
| 25 | .New York | 0.468634 |
| 26 | .Nevada | 0.452915 |
| 27 | .Michigan | 0.449389 |
| 28 | .Indiana | 0.435365 |
| 29 | .Pennsylvania | 0.412423 |
| 30 | .Virginia | 0.403295 |
| 31 | .Kansas | 0.389714 |
| 32 | .Louisiana | 0.360399 |
| 33 | .Ohio | 0.33633 |
| 34 | .New Hampshire | 0.321317 |
| 35 | .Maryland | 0.32044 |
| 36 | .New Jersey | 0.309701 |
| 37 | .Puerto Rico | 0.301092 |
| 38 | .Rhode Island | 0.298716 |
| 39 | .Delaware | 0.29775 |
| 40 | .Oklahoma | 0.262248 |
| 41 | .Texas | 0.258984 |
| 42 | .North Carolina | 0.237646 |
| 43 | .Mississippi | 0.237536 |
| 44 | .Connecticut | 0.234513 |
| 45 | .South Carolina | 0.227007 |
| 46 | .Missouri | 0.207202 |
| 47 | .Georgia | 0.203892 |
| 48 | .Kentucky | 0.190421 |
| 49 | .Tennessee | 0.160865 |
| 50 | .West Virginia | 0.157637 |
| 51 | .Arkansas | 0.128605 |
| 52 | .Alabama | 0.128286 |
Metropolitan areas
Once again, the Portland metropolitan area led the nation for the highest rate of bike commuting. The metropolitan area includes suburbs and the nearby towns of Beaverton, Oregon, and Vancouver, Washington.
The highest ranked bike commuting metropolitan areas among the 30 areas with the biggest work force are (this compares the entire metro areas, not just the principal city in each one):
1. Portland-Vancouver-Beaverton, OR-WA Metro Area
2. Sacramento–Arden-Arcade–Roseville, CA Metro Area
3. San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA Metro Area
4. Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI Metro Area
5. Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA Metro Area
6. Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, MA-NH Metro Area
7. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, CA Metro Area
8. Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ Metro Area
9. Denver-Aurora, CO Metro Area
10. San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, CA Metro Area
To see how the top 60 cities rank for bicycling, walking, etc. check “2008 city commuting trends are in” at Bike Pittsburgh.
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