Couldn't bike in today, which was a bummer, but while driving my steel cage with the radio on I heard a segment on how bike commuting in Portland, Minneapolis, and Washington, DC, has tripled in the past few years.

Tripled! Wow. I love that. I wonder how they determined that?

I'm not sure if bike commuting has increased or not in Cleveland, but I know one thing--it hasn't tripled. Many congrats to you and yours in those areas.

Really. We talking about the same NPR? All I hear about is Schweddy Balls.

No one can resist the Schwetty Balls (bearings, of course!). I live in DC, and have definitely noticed more cyclists. Unfortunately, the ratio doesn't change---number of idiot cyclists increases in linear fashion with the number of overall new cyclists.

There's a short article along with a link to the audio here.

Here in Japan (and I assume in other places in the world) they pay people to sit at intersections and count vehicules as they go by. Cars, pedestrians, cyclists get counted. Figures could be based on that sort of data.

People are idiots regardless of their mode of transportation Be it a car, a motorcycle, a scooter, a bicycle, their own two legs, doesn't matter.

Anyway...

This morning in NY was in the upper 30s F. A few years ago I wouldn't see many bike commuters when it was this chilly. This morning, there were bike commuters everywhere.

I was skeptical that the number of bicycle commuters has actually tripled but if you listen to the show it says that it's tripled over the course of a couple of decades which is more believable. I think it nearly doubled here a few years ago when gas prices skyrocketed.

They do that here too. I also remember questions about how I get to work being part of a phone survey a couple of years ago.

Tripled: Three times a very small number is still a small number.

I was just in the Portland airport a couple weeks ago. I talked with an employee who was just coming into the terminal with his bike. He said at that hour (7:30AM) downtown Portland is nearly impossible to drive a car in from the bikes and peds. Right outside the door where we were talking, the airport had set up a Parks repair stand and the sign said tools were available at customer service so those flying in could assemble their bikes right there. Very cool!!

That is really cool

I've seen an increase in my area. I'm glad to see it is catching on. It was kind of lonely out there for me.

Drivers attitudes definitely changed too with larger numbers of bikes on the streets. I don't remember when I was last honked or yelled at. It used to happen in the past years. Now I take a full lane on the bridge and the traffic calmly follows me. It's almost weird.

"Impossible to drive a car in" is a subjective term, I suppose. There are a lot of bicylcists in Portland, but I don't think they've quite choked out the auto traffic yet.

According to this post from Bike Portland (citing census data), nearly 6% of Portlanders (about 16000 people) use bicycling as their primary form of transportation to and from work. The entry also says that this number has increased (in Portland) by 230% since 2000, which, if I'm parsing the language correctly, is tripling.

Nice. I've definitely seen more bicycle commuters the last two years, even in winter. It started when gas prices spiked. I used to be the only one making bike tracks in snow on the MUP. Now there are others.

Well... in my office, there used to be one person who bike commuted, and she wasn't really in our office, and now I'm doing it and I've got a co-worker doing it too... so tripled! and in Cleveland!

I hope this website has helped fuel the fun. Have we had an increase in visits in the last couple of years? I'm skeptical, since when I log on, I see typically the same number of people on as always--40 to 80.

In case anyone wants to read/listen to it.

https://www.npr.org/2010/11/23/131539...s-bike-to-work

I have noticed a big change here in Lexington since we opened the legacy trail. Seems like biking has been revived. Now I pass at least 5 commuters when I am able to commute I never saw any last year.

We have occasional visual counts, and of course those (?) pneumatic sensor tubes across the road, which I assume can distinguish different vehicle types.

I commute into DC via the W&OD trail, which is a major commuting route on the west side of DC. Several times a year I do see "counters" out sitting in lawnchairs with clipboards, and also seen the black tubing gizmo's that attach to a box chained to a pole so I assume they're counting something! Or not, but they're giving the appearance that they are

They have people sit at certain intersections in Irvine, CA. Don't know if they are paid. They only seem interested in a particular direction though.

I have noticed more when the temps are warmer and days longer, but it is pretty bare right now.

I think those just count the amount of vehicles on the road. I saw the inside of one once (mid 90s, so they might have changed) and all they did was change a dial similar to a pitch counter occasionally seen used by baseball coaches.

I think that says volumes about motorists' attitudes behind the wheel -- Portland is a perfectly reasonable place to drive if you don't mind paying attention to your driving and sharing the road with other people.

Very limited commuting here in Richmond, VA, but the south in general is a car culture. On my ride, I never see any cyclists until I get to my neighborhood, when there are tons of families out on bicycles together.

On campus, though, we have a bikeshare program and lots of kids on bikes, so I think these both point to more commuting by bike in the future. Adults didn't get the "green" talk in public schools when they grew up- today, kids come home to their parents asking them to recycle more, repair old stuff instead of replacing it, etc.

I will always, always be jealous of Copenhagen, though: 500,000 cyclists commute there every day. It must be beautiful.