Washington DC Ranked 3rd Highest; % of Bicycle Commuters among US Cities.

[KLizotte]

A few minutes ago I heard a story on NPR that talked about a study that was done that gave residents of a neighborhood one of four possible reasons to conserve energy:

1) it’s better for the environment
2) you will save money
3) do it for your kids and future generations
4) your neighbors are already conserving energy

The researchers measured energy use before and after the notifications went out. None of the pleas had any effect EXCEPT #4.

They also pointed out that in the petrified forest in CA it was found that signs telling people that over a million tons of petrified wood is stolen every year (I think) and that this was hurting the undergrowth actually led to an increase in theft. People figure, “well, if everyone else is stealing so can I.” Turns out people are herd animals after all.

So the moral of the story is, 1) be careful about “negative” messages to transform behavior and 2) people are more likely to bike if they simply see lots of other people biking as opposed to messages about how good it is for the environment or their health. A compelling argument for bikeshare (on a personal note, seeing people on bike share in Paris and then CaBi is what got me into biking again).

[lordofthemark]

@Rod Smith 66601 wrote:

http://www.peopleforbikes.org/blog/entry/data-confirms-it-dc-is-the-new-u.s.-bike-city-to-watch
According to the graph, the number of bike commuters in DC has more than doubled since 2007!

I can’t seem to work the PDFs/links found here which might provide more info. Links to Census Bureau stats not available because of the gov’t shutdown. The article mentions that Minneapolis is second, I don’t know who’s first. Probably Gainesville, Florida. Or Arlington, VA. :confused:

Ok this is probably a dumb question, but does this stat include all DC workers or only the small % of commuters who both LIVE and WORK in DC? I’m going to assume the former.

Anyway, congrats to DC bike commuters for doing what you do! DC with over 4% bike commuters is ranked as a Silver City for biking by the League of American Bicyclists (LAB). All other city with more than 3% meet the Gold standard. I’m not sure what that says about DC or LAB. 3 and 4 are small numbers, but the numbers should continue to grow, 4% is 1 out of every 25 commuters, not bad for a start! We were below 2% in 2007!

I’m pretty sure that A. the 4% is the percent of total employed DC residents who report biking to work as their primary mode, regardless of where they work. If you were to look only at DC residents working in DC, I think the % would be somewhat higher (despite the hardy folks who bike out to Arlington or even Tysons, I think reverse commuters are less likely to bike) and it you looked at all who worked in DC, the % would be lower. B and that Portland is first.

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