wheel

So I saw this statistic
https://www.bts.gov/publications/nati...ble_01_38.html

So now we are losing commuters, What is up with putting motorcycles with Bicycles?

gwhalin

Seriously depressing chart. Biking, walking, public transportation, and car pooling are all trending way down while driving self is trending up.

pinkrobe

I wouldn't be surprised to see a correlation between distance commuted and increased single-occupant vehicle use. As cities spread out, people move farther away from the city core to get their McMansions and sidewalk-free communities. To get to work, they have to drive there, since there is no transit service and a 50+ mile return cycling commute is way beyond what most people can handle.

The solution is to encourage people to live a little smaller, and live closer to where they work. Let gasoline prices get to $6/gallon and you'll likely start to see a shift in behaviour. Let property taxes actually reflect the cost of delivering infrastructure to the burbs and you'll see a shift.

SingingSabre 

That is sad.

It'll be even sadder when gas starts getting to be $5-6/gal and people are too beligerent to do anything logical about it.

chipcom 

Easy folks...I'd bet that the numbers post-2003 tell a different story.

max-a-mill

how bout the polar bears???

you think our preisdent watched an inconvienient truth???

BAAAAH!!!! i wonder if americans will finally start to care when manhattan starts to flood???

drfardook

I'm not so sure. If one of the major factors in driving is the trend towards suburbs and exurbs where NOTHING is within walking (or biking to be honest) distance, then it become "impossible" for people to cut back on their driving. When you live 40-50 miles from your place of employment, the kids play soccer 10 miles away, and your shopping is spread out over 10-15 miles there's going to be a baseline need for driving even if you carpool and otherwise reduce your driving as much as possible.

I don't see people moving into duplexes (or developers building any new multi-family dwellings... communal living, that's still hippy dippy stuff) and creating viable city centers outside of a few major urban areas anytime soon. Plus cars are durable goods so any SUV purchased in the past 5-10 years is likely to still be on the road.

I do hope we'll see a dip, but I doubt we'll see any real reversal in the trends.

glenhoffman60

Here in Phila., it is safer to deal with city traffic than alot of the suburban areas. There are some routes out there, but not easy enough to encourage new commuters. How are some other suburban areas for commuting? That could contribute also. Some may not want to get their Armani duds caught in the crank either.

DataJunkie

Um? The study ends in 2003. Haven't gas prices risen since then?

JeffS

Those carpool numbers seem really high.

Maybe it's just where I live, but WAY less than 10% carpool here. Maybe 1%... on a good day. Unless you count all the moms "carpooling" their kids to school.

wheel

Well the study is ongoing , we need to wait till 2006 before the next one. Unless Bush supresses more data because it is bad.
This graph will show
https://www.bts.gov/publications/nati...ble_04_09.html
that it does not really matter how mcuh gas is
in 1960 it was 31 cents
https://www.1960sflashback.com/1960/Economy.asp


Well look at 2 people travel carpools, alot of them could be husband and wife.
Also when you have HOV lanes in I think it is safe to say your going to have higher numbers.

jimmuter

This thread may be headed for a slow painful death in the P&R forum or something. I didn't realize that climate change began in January 2001 when Bush was inaugurated. Oh well, everyone needs a villain in life to make themselves feel superior. Just don't let the bitterness take over your life as it appears to have done already.

chipcom 

Well considering that bicycle sales are up, as well as the increase in membership in BF and the increased amount of commuters I am seeing, especially for this time of year, I'm pretty confident that we'll see increases in the 2005 and 2006 numbers.

wheel

Well give me a delete button and I can pull my threads as soon as you complain.
Sorry if too negitive I was trying to show how your efforts are needed trying to motivate.
Yea cycling gives me to much time to think.

In case your wondering what jimmuter is talking about I can still edit. And hell ya I am pissed off why do you think I cycle so much.

wheel

Yep a rise back to 1985 levels hopefully. I think telecommute is going to skyrocket.

jimmuter

Nobody apparently bothered to look, but the 2005 numbers are out too so there's not such a need to argue about the current state of things:
https://www.bts.gov/publications/nati...ble_01_38.html

They look remarkably similar to 2003. I wonder how income levels play into this. It seems like even most poor people have cars now. It could be the decrease is partially due to increased car ownership among the working poor.

I run for fun. Some do it out of necessity.

JohnBrooking

Although single-occupancy car commuting stayed level from 1999 to 2001, I notice a slight bump in others, including biking/motorcycle and carpooling, only to decrease again in 2003. I wonder if that was a 9/11 effect (people wanting to be more virtuous, etc.)? Or maybe the bulk of the data was collected before then and it is just coincidence.

Also interesting, working from home seems to have no meaningful pattern in variance between 2.6 and 3.1, so maybe these variances are all just normal deviation anyway. I would think that category would be steadily rising. But maybe the larger percentage of people I'd expect to see within jobs that can do it is being offset by having few of those jobs available, as the US becomes more and more a service economy and less of a high-tech one.

rnorris

The trouble is, not only have gas prices gone up dramatically since 2003.... how about housing prices? In many urban areas, particularly in the West, more people are settling for ridiculously long car commutes in order to have affordable housing (or what they percieve as such). The real estate boom is much to blame for escalating sprawl, at least in recent years.

wheel

Thanks for finding the 2005.

The Human Car

The survey question: Do you bike to work?

JeffS

True, but there are entire states without HOV lanes. Maybe HOV use in these areas makes up for it. I've passed through areas with HOV lanes during rushhour and way less than 10% were using them. This just feels like a case of wishful thinking. Someone asks if you carpool, and since you did indeed three times in the last two years you answer yes.

Either way, I'm from an area where just about everyone tranports only themselves to work, and in their own car, so I can't relate.

rog

Heh...move to Jersey. You want property taxes? We got 'em.