More on Biking Commuters

Here is a follow up to my post last week concerning biking to work and commuting bikers. I wrote an email inquiry to the Marin Bicycle Coalition, who were very responsive in answering:

“It depends which roads you are talking about. The County of Marin doesn’t do “bike counts” to assess the number of people cycling. So if it’s county roads (such as sections of Alameda del Prado or Atherton) then the data doesn’t exist. Yet. However, that will change when the Non-Motorized Pilot Program starts. The County will have to do before and after bike counts, though it’s worth noting that they will probably only do counts on streets relevant to the bike projects being built at a part of that program.”

So as part of the new funding for the pilot programs counts will happen in effected areas. I found from MBC, some data from the US Census Bureau, which confirms my suspicion, virtually nobody (nationally .4%) bikes to work. This may be why the county doesn’t count bikers currently.

Biking has actually gone down quite a bit over time, as well as alternative means of transportation to work.

In 1960:
10% Walked to work
12% Took public transportation
64% Drove to Work

By 1990
4% Walked to work (down 60%)
5.3% Took public transportation (down 56%)
86% Drove to Work (up 35%)
-73% of those who drove, drove alone

Means of Transportation to Work for the U.S.: 1990 Census [I couldn’t find 2000 information]

|Means of Transportation to Work | Number Percent |

|Workers 16 years and over………. | 115,070,274 100.0 |

| Car, truck, or van…………… | 99,592,932 86.5 |
| Drove alone……………….. | 84,215,298 73.2 |
| Carpooled…………………. | 15,377,634 13.4 |
| Public transportation………… | 6,069,589 5.3 |
| Bus or trolley bus…………. | 3,445,000 3.0 |
| Streetcar or trolley car……. | 78,130 0.1 |
| Subway or elevated…………. | 1,755,476 1.5 |
| Railroad………………….. | 574,052 0.5 |
| Ferryboat 1/………………. | 37,497 0.0 |
| Taxicab…………………… | 179,434 0.2 |
| Motorcycle………………….. | 237,404 0.2 |
| Bicycle…………………….. | 466,856 0.4 |
| Walked only…………………. | 4,488,886 3.9 |
| Other means…………………. | 808,582 0.7 |
| Worked at home………………. | 3,406,025 3.0 |

1/ This category was included in “Other means” prior to 1990.