As we reported earlier, according to the US Census Bureau’s 2008 American Community Survey (ACS), released on September 22, 2009, 0.55 percent of Americans use a bicycle as the primary means of getting to work. This is up 14 percent since 2007, 36 percent from the first ACS in 2005, and 43 percent since the 2000 Census. (Note that the ACS methodology under-counts cycling by not counting bicycle commuters who biked just once or twice the week they were surveyed or most cyclists who bike and use public transportation for their trip to work.)
Click here to view theACS journey to work results for the 70 largest US cities, including the 27 largest Bicycle Friendly Communities (BFCs), since 2000. Scroll right (or click on the following links) to find the share of American workers who bicycle, walk, use public transportation and drive alone. The tables show the share of commuters for 2000, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, and their percent change over time. (UPDATE: the “largest BFC average” was updated on October 22 to include the four newest BFCs that are among the 70 largest US cities.)
Click here to view the ACS journey to work results for the 50 US states (and Puerto Rico). Use the tabs at the bottom for bicycle commuters and walking commuters. The sheets also include the amount of federal dollars spent on bicycle and pedestrian project between 2000 and 2008.
On average, the 70 largest cities in the US, from New York City (population eight million) to Plano, Texas (population 259,000), had higher bicycle commuter levels and larger increases than the national average. The average bicycle commuter share for the largest 70 US cities in 2008 was 0.93 percent, having grown by nearly 50 percent since 2000.
Among the 70 largest cities, the 27 that have been designated by the League of American Bicyclists as Bicycle Friendly Communities (BFCs) for their pro-bicycling policies saw even higher levels of bicycle commuting and greater increases over the past eight years. In 2008, the average BFC bicycle commuter share was 1.5 percent, nearly three times the national average. BFCs also grew 60 percent more than the national average and 40 percent more than the 70 largest city average.
Bicycle Friendly Communities far outpaced the 43 largest non-BFCs, whose average bicycle commuter share is growing slower than even the national average. Between 2000 and 2008, the bicycle commuter share in the 27 largest BFCs increased by nearly 70 percent. In contrast, the share in the non-BFC cities increased only 23 percent, to 0.57 percent. This strongly suggests that the efforts of the BFCs to improve bicycling conditions by investing in engineering, education, encouragement, enforcement, and evaluation and planning are paying off with larger increases in bicycle commuters.
Some of the fastest growing communities were those that started with relatively low bicycle commuter shares in 2000. Nashville and Cleveland tripled their share, and Cincinnati doubled its, but all three still have not reached three-quarters of a percent. On the other hand, some the cities with the highest bicycle commuter levels in 2000 also saw some of the largest increases. Platinum BFC Portland, OR saw the largest growth among all 70 large cities, more than tripling their bike share, to nearly 6 percent. See complete summary for more.
Last Wednesday, September 30, the current federal surface transportation law SAFETEA-LU was set to expire. In order to prevent a halt in transportation spending and allow time for the Senate to debate a 3-month extension for SAFETEA-LU, Congress added a one-month continuing resolution (CR) to a last minute legislative branch appropriations bill. Unfortunately, the CR did not address the requirement under SAFETEA-LU for states to send back $8.7B under the latest rescission notice. The League of American Bicyclists along with its America Bikes Coalition partners will use the next month to continue meeting with Congressional Members to urge them to move quickly in passing the next transportation bill. See FAQ section for additional update.
Through the new Communities Putting Prevention to Work (CPPW) grant program, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will award $373 million to 30 to 40 communities throughout the country to reduce obesity and tobacco use. The program is an opportunity for bicycle and pedestrian advocates and local and state health departments to work together to secure significant funding to increase walking and bicycling for transportation and recreation.
Summary: On September 17, 2009, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced a new program: Communities Putting Prevention to Work. Thirty to forty communities will receive a total of $373 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (stimulus) dollars through this competitive grant program to support interventions that reduce obesity (through improved physical activity and nutrition) and/or reduce tobacco use. Communities can apply for either focus area or both. This landmark opportunity is aimed at mobilizing community resources toward broad-based policy, systems, organizational and environmental changes. The application places an emphasis on communities demonstrating effective coalitions, and notes that special consideration should be given to the inclusion of populations disproportionately affected by chronic diseases.
On September 29, 2009 the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced the release of $120 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds for prevention and wellness programs for U.S. states and territories, building on the recent announcement of the $373 million funding opportunity for communities and tribes around the country. In all, the comprehensive Communities Putting Prevention to Work initiative will make $650 million available for public health efforts to address obesity, increase physical activity, improve nutrition, and decrease smoking.
Lead Applicants: Local and State Health Departments
Deadlines: Letter of Intent Deadline: October 30, 2009 Application Deadline: December 1, 2009
The Opportunity for Bike/Ped Advocates: Communities Putting Prevention to Work provides an important opportunity for bicycle and pedestrian professionals, enthusiasts, and advocates, as well as health officials, to act quickly to get your city or state to:
1. Apply for the funding;
2. Educate the health department about the range of bike/ped interventions that can be included in their application and action plan; and
3. Include your organization as a partner in the effort.
The Alliance for Biking & Walking has worked with America Bikes and the Safe Routes to School National Partnership to prepare a list of sample bike/ped activities that fit within the five categories of evidence-based interventions that are required as part of this CDC application. Funds are available to make these projects a reality — so it is in your interest to work with your health department to develop the bike/ped aspects of the CDC application for obesity prevention, and to demonstrate how your organization can be a resource to them.
* Populations greater than 500,000: If you live in a city or county with a population of 500,000 people or more, your local city or county health department will be the lead applicant on the grant. You should find and contact the health department staff person who is the lead on physical activity or obesity. In addition, you should contact your Mayor and City Council members to urge them to ask the health department to apply for this grant with a focus on bike/ped to increase physical activity.
* Populations less than 500,000: If you live in a city, county, or community with a population of less than 500,000 people, then your State Department of Health will be the lead applicant. States can only choose two communities throughout the whole state to sponsor, so it will be important to reach out soon. Work with your local health department, Mayor or members of the Board of Supervisors to encourage them to reach out to the state department of health to include your community in the state’s application.
* Tribal Applicants: If you live in a tribal area, you should work with the health department lead staff on physical activity or obesity to prepare the application. Tribes are permitted to apply directly. Application Focus: The CDC Request for Proposals notes that the “key to the success of this initiative, Communities Putting Prevention to Work, will be to implement community-wide policies, systems, and environmental changes that reach across all levels of the socio-ecological model and include the full engagement of the leadership in city government, boards of health, schools, businesses, community and faith-based organizations, community developers, transportation and land use planners, parks and recreation officials, health care purchasers, health plans, health care providers, academic institutions, foundations, other Recovery Act-funded community activities, and many other community sectors working together to promote health and prevent chronic diseases. Funded programs need to build on, but not duplicate current Federal programs as well as state, local, or community programs and coordinate fully with existing programs and resources in the community.”
Please note that construction and research are not eligible activities.
You can follow the proceedings on the Secretary’s bog Welcome to the Fast Lane and here for video. UPDATE:StreetsBlog DC reports that President Obama has signed an executive order prohibiting federal employees from texting while driving a government vehicle — or from texting on a government-provided device while driving any vehicle.
Chanda Causer of the Alliance for Bicycling and Walking asked Alliance Leaders what solutions they’d like to see advanced at the summit.
Dave Snyder, a San Francisco bike/ped advocate, recommends requiring the installation of a black box vehicle data recorder that would be accessible by law enforcement in the event of a crash and would help crash investigators know whether or not the driver applied the brakes at a reasonable time, was talking on the phone, listening to the radio, using their turn signal, etc. It wouldn’t require enforcement but it would be effective, as it would place responsibility appropriately.
Noah Budnick of Transportation Alternatives in New York City offers a complete analysis in the Executive Order report, which recommends 20 measures covering enforcement, adjudication, transparency, investigation and prosecution all aimed at changing driver behavior to improve safety.
Dan Persky of the Active Transportation Alliance in Chicago says their top priority on distracted driving is to stop use of electronic devices by transit operators. Illinois State Rep John D’Amico will be speaking at today’s Distracted Driving Summit, pushing this idea. They are also pushing the need for social marketing like Click It or Ticket for distracted driving. They call the campaign Drive with Care.
Kevin Cronin reports that ClevelandBikes was a part of a coalition that successfully advocated for a no text and drive law, which is not yet in force. The sponsor, Cleveland, Ohio Councilman Zachary Reed is also attending the Summit, representing the League of Cities. ClevlandBikes would go further, including hand-held and hands-free phoning as compounding the risk for cyclists, who are already vulnerable road users.
The League of American Bicyclists announced 45 new Bicycle Friendly Business award winners last Thursday, September 24, including two platinum winners Bicycle Sport Shop of Austin, Texas and Quality Bicycle Products of Bloomington, Minn., at the Industry Leadership Breakfast during Interbike in Las Vegas, Nev. This was the third time BFB winners have been announced since the program’s inception in 2008 when the League announced the first 13 designees. “We are delighted so many businesses are using the BFB road map to encourage and enable their employees to ride – everyone from two-person neighborhood businesses to major corporations are getting on board,” stated League President Andy Clarke.
BFB businesses make bicycle friendliness a core element in the workplace and use innovative tools to promote bicycling as an easy and fun option for transportation and recreation. “There are a lot of very simple, effective and creative ways that companies are finding to get people back on their bikes, and we recognize those efforts with our BFB awards,” said Clarke. The League encourages businesses to inspire their employees to bike to work by incorporating the fundamentals of the BFB program. “Companies across the country are recognizing that getting their employees moving – either to or from work, in course of work, or even in their own time – is good for business.”
The BFB program recognizes socially responsible businesses that promote healthy, happy, and green workplaces and provides a road map to become even more bicycle-friendly in the years to come. Platinum-level Bicycle Sport Shop has noticed several benefits from supporting a bicycle friendly workplace, including improved employee health and fewer hours missed due to illness; reduced parking costs; improved lifestyle for employees; and improved morale for all staff. “We are providing life lessons for our employees, which help them improve their health and teach them how important it is to stay healthy,” said Leslie Luciano, Bicycle Sports Shop Advocacy Coordinator. Platinum-level Quality Bicycle Products (QBP) has also noticed several benefits of joining the BFB program – including increased bike commuting. QBP counts bicycle commuting towards the exercise criteria of the company’s health care plan, and in 2008, 346 different employees combined to register 27,906 one-way trips for more than 327,000 total miles.
BFB winners provide amenities such as secure bike parking and shower facilities and motivations such as incentives to commute by bike, company bike rides and clubs, and bike to Work Week promotions. When bicycling is infused in a company’s culture, great things happen: reduced health care costs; more productive employees; improved worker and customer satisfaction; smaller carbon footprint; and increased corporate social responsibility. “Bicycling is a readily accessible and practical form of physical activity that has the added benefits of reducing congestion and the need for parking, reducing the carbon footprint of a business, increasing productivity, and raising morale,” said Clarke. “It’s also great fun.”
Applying as a BFB is easy and free. Applicants receive technical assistance from the League staff as well as tools to evaluate and assess their bicycle friendliness through the application process. The BFB application is available online at www.bicyclefriendlybusiness.org. Click here to see our fall 2009 winners. Click here to see a complete list of 2008 and 2009 winners.
According to the US Census Bureau’s 2008 American Community Survey (ACS), released today, 0.55% of American workers use a bicycle as the primary means of getting to work. This is up 14 percent since 2007, 36 percent from the first ACS in 2005, and 43 percent since the 2000 Census. See the League of American Bicyclists’ analysis of the numbers for the 70 largest US cities and the 50 states. You can look up this information for hundreds of communities and all of the states using the American Fact Finder.
Percent of Americans who bike to work
2000 Census: 0.38%
2005: 0.40%
2006: 0.45%
2007: 0.48%
2008: 0.55%
Percent Change
2000 to 2008: 43.40%
2005 to 2008: 35.80%
2007 to 2008: 14.30%
NOTES: The ACS numbers are estimated by the Census bureau based on samples taken year-round. The numbers in the tables above are rounded, if you calculate the percentages based on the rounded numbers, you’ll get different values than are presented in the second table.
I’ve spent a lot of time in Portland, visited Boulder, ridden the cycle-tracks of NYC, regularly use the bike sharing system here in D.C. and I am anxiously awaiting the opening of our new BikeStation - I’ve seen a lot of what is considered forward-thinking, best practice infrastructure and programs in the U.S. that we tout in our Bicycle Friendly Community program.
I had heard the Head of Copenhagen Cycle Program Andreas Rohl at our National Bike Summit talking about the high levels of bicycling in Copenhagen and the widely held view that everyday cycling is perfectly normal, not a political statement or a daring act. Like everyone else, I thought, “Wow, that’s cool. That’s what we need to be shooting for.” But it was truly an eye-opening experience to see in person how bike-friendly a place can be. A place where bicycling is as normal of an activity in daily life as using a vacuum cleaner. As a bicycle culture consultant and leader of the Slow Bike/Cycle Chic movement, Mikael Colville-Anderson puts it, “We all have one. We all know how to use them. But we don’t have a fetish about them or think about them every day.” And that is exactly what I experienced. From ages 8 to 80 – everyone rode. Drivers respected cyclists’ space, as they are likely cyclists themselves! No special outfits, gear or fancy equipment was needed – though wasn’t shunned when used. After a few days I settled in and stopped thinking about it. In Copenhagen bicycling is the most convenient, quickest way to get around, nothing more.
In addition to mocking my inability to convert miles to kilometers and Fahrenheit to Celsius, Mikael was gracious enough to share his thoughts on world bicycling culture, normalizing the use of the bicycle, how far Copenhagen has come (they haven’t always been so bike-friendly) and even how far they need to go to grow beyond the 36% of the population who commute by bike. For those of you who live in the D.C. Metro area you can hear his thoughts September 30th along with League President Andy Clarke at Forum: Cycle Chic–Bike Culture and Policies in Denmark.
photo: Jeff Peel
I do think we have some wonderful examples here at home, and communities throughout the U.S. are moving in the right direction. The growth in League recognized Bicycle Friendly Communities is evidence. Learning from cities like Copenhagen helps us see what is possible, and how far we still have to go to reach our goal.
~Jeff Peel, Program Specialist, Bicycle Friendly Communities
Senator Coburn’s (R-OK) efforts to attack transportation enhancements failed. Yesterday he introduced two amendments to the FY10 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (THUD) appropriations bill that would strike funding for transportation enhancements: S. Amendment 2370which prohibited funding for transportation enhancements if the Highway Trust Fund does not contain amounts sufficient to cover unfunded highway authorizations and S. Amendment 2371which would not allow states to spend their 10 percent of their surface transportation funding on transportation enhancements.
The League and several bike/ped advocacy organizations asked members to call their senators in opposition of these amendments – and your help worked! S. Amendment 2370 was withdrawn, and S. Amendment 2371lost 39-59!!! You can see how your Senators voted here.
Thank you for all of the phone calls and emails to your senators!
Transportation Enhancements are the largest federal source of bicycle and pedestrian funding and they are under attack.
We need your help – TODAY!
Senator Coburn (R-OK) is offering two amendments to the FY10 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (THUD) appropriations bill that will strike funding for transportation enhancements. The two amendments are S. Amendment 2370 and S. Amendment 2371. Find out what transportation enhancement projects are in your state here.
The Transportation Enhancement program has provided between one half and three-quarters of all Federal funding invested in bicycling and walking improvements in the last 20 years. More than $250 million is at stake in fiscal year 2010 – if Coburn’s amendment is successful it will affect hundreds of trail projects, sidewalks, bicyclist education programs, bike rack on bus programs, and roadway improvements for bicyclists.
S. Amendment 2370 prohibits funding for transportation enhancements if the Highway Trust Fund does not contain amounts sufficient to cover unfunded highway authorizations.
S. Amendment 2371 allows states to opt out of the 10 percent set aside rule that require states to spend at least 10 percent of their surface transportation funding on transportation enhancements.
We expect the amendments to be offered and voted on during Senate floor debate tomorrow, Wednesday, September 16.
Please call your Senator immediately and urge them to vote NO on S. Amendment 2370 and S. Amendment 2371 to the FY10 transportation appropriations bill.
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