jme243

I am interested in the percentage of people who commute via bicycle each day in the US. Does anyone have a number that may help me?

greenstork

According to the 2000 census, it was about 0.4% of all commute trips. Here's an interesting database that breaks it down by city:

https://www.bikesatwork.com/carfree/c...-database.html

SDRider

If I had to guess I'd say it's a very very very small number.

jme243

i'm sure it is a very small number, but I was curious if there was a number

balindamood

I have also heard the statistics that most bikes sold in the US are ridden less than 100 miles over their lifetime. Can anyone lead me to the origin of this statistic???

KrisPistofferson

I am sure it is a much larger number than it was a few years ago, though. I don't live in Eugene, Oregon or Seattle, Washington, I live in Chattanooga Tennessee. When I started serious commuting I was just about the only non-DUI person I saw on the road, but since the War and gas prices shot up, there are lots of us here. It's pretty cool, as it's better to make lemons into lemonade than say, get into a fistfight with a Walmart employee because you're stressed out about filling the tank on your Explorer.

closetbiker

I'm always suprised that with all I hear about green Seattle and Portland, Vancouver and Victoria have double the cycle commuters they do and nationally, cold Canada has triple the cycle commuters that the more weather friendly US does

cradduck

And that has what to do with what the OP asked?

Industrial

Well at least when we talk, our heads don't flop all over the place. Go 'merica!

Here is a small write-up by the California air resources board. If you need more information perhaps you could contact them, they seem to have access to many studies and statistics.

duppie

Go here and look for the benchmarking study.
It answers this question as well as any other bicycling related question you can possibly think of. Chapter 3 is especially interesting. Since it has all the data related to bicycling.
Funniest thing I found there:
While Portland leads the nation in the percentage of trips to work by bike, they are also cheap skates beyond belief . In Portland 3.6% of people commutes to wrok by bike; 0.6% does that in Atlanta.
The bicycling retail sales per capita in Portland is $70; that number in Atlanta is $216......

People in Atlanta that do ride their bike, spend 16 times as much doing so than people in Portland....

Duppie

closetbiker

Huh?? That went over my head (don't have to explain. my grade 6 teacher told me never to explain a joke)

donnamb 

I find it pretty amazing, myself.

Maybe because Portlanders ride more, we stick with what works for us instead of trying out new, expensive fads.

Sixty Fiver

"Well at least when we talk, our heads don't flop all over the place. Go 'merica!"

You've been breathing too much car exhaust.

JeffB502

I guess there aren't many South Park fans here...

VA_Dave

I thought it was funny, and so did my Manitoban wife

Sixty Fiver

Ah.

The drugs are making me slower than usual today.

ItsJustMe

I don't know where but I've heard that before too.
I've also heard that the US has the highest number of bikes owned per capita, and the lowest number of miles ridden on a bike per capita, in the world.

For most people, bikes are another piece of exercise equipment that they never use.

closetbiker

Ahhh! Just... Blame Canada!