Bicycle commuting remained a small share of U.S. work travel, but it grew substantially between 2000 and 2008–2012. The U.S. Census Bureau’s Modes Less Traveled—Bicycling and Walking to Work in the United States: 2008–2012 reports where bicycle commuting was most common and how it differed by worker characteristics, household resources, trip length, departure time, and the relationship between home and workplace.
Contents
- U.S. bicycle commuting trends
- Geographic differences
- Age, sex, race, and education
- Income, children, and vehicle access
- Commute duration and departure time
- Home and workplace location
U.S. bicycle commuting trends
About 488,000 U.S. workers traveled to work by bicycle in 2000. In the 2008–2012 period, that figure was about 786,000 workers, an increase of 60.8% from 2000. These are counts of workers, not all bicycle trips or all people who sometimes rode a bicycle for transportation.
The bicycle share of U.S. workers was 0.5% in 1980, 0.4% in 1990, and 0.4% in 2000. It reached 0.6% in 2008–2012. The percentages describe the principal mode usually used to travel from home to work. For a multimode trip, the reported mode was the one used for the longest distance.
The largest cities showed a higher combined rate than the national figure. Across the 50 largest U.S. cities, bicycle commuting rose from 0.6% in 2000 to 1.0% in 2008–2012. Five cities had rates of at least 3.0% in 2008–2012; no city reached 3.0% in 2000. The city-level comparison therefore shows a wider spread than the national average, even within a period when bicycle commuting was still a minority travel mode.
Geographic differences
Location was one of the clearest differences in the Census Bureau estimates. In 2008–2012, the West had the highest regional bicycle commuting rate, at 1.1%. That was about four times the South’s rate. Among large Western cities, the rate was 1.4%.
The setting where workers lived also mattered. Workers living in metropolitan principal cities bicycled to work at a rate of 1.0%. The rate was 0.4% for workers living in metropolitan suburbs and 0.4% for those living outside metropolitan areas.
Several city and metropolitan figures illustrate how much local results could differ from broad regional averages:
| Place or geography | Bicycle commuting rate | Period |
|---|---|---|
| Portland, Oregon, large-city rate | 6.1% | 2008–2012 |
| Minneapolis, large-city rate | 4.1% | 2008–2012 |
| Minneapolis, large-city rate | 1.9% | 2000 |
| Minneapolis–St. Paul–Bloomington metropolitan area | 0.9% | 2008–2012 |
| 50 largest U.S. cities, combined | 1.0% | 2008–2012 |
Portland’s 6.1% and Minneapolis’s 4.1% were rates for the named large cities, while the Minneapolis–St. Paul–Bloomington figure covered the metropolitan area and was 0.9%. Those geographies should not be treated as interchangeable. The difference between a city rate and a metropolitan-area rate can reflect the broader area included in the estimate.
Age, sex, race, and education
Bicycle commuting was most common among the youngest age groups listed in the report. Workers ages 16 to 24 had a rate of 1.0% in 2008–2012. The rate was 0.8% for workers ages 25 to 29 and 0.7% for workers ages 30 to 34. It declined to 0.5% among workers ages 35 to 44, 0.4% among those ages 45 to 54, and 0.3% among workers ages 55 and older.
The reported rate for men was 0.8%, compared with 0.3% for women. The report’s race categories use race-alone classifications where race is specified. Black workers had a rate of 0.3%. Workers identified as Some other race or Two or more races had a rate of 0.8%, while Hispanic workers had a rate of 0.7%.
Educational attainment did not form a simple single-direction pattern in the reported figures. Workers with a graduate or professional degree had the highest stated educational-attainment rate, at 0.9%. Workers who did not graduate from high school had a rate of 0.7%. These figures describe the categories specifically reported here and should not be read as a complete ranking of every attainment group.
All of these demographic percentages refer to workers ages 16 and over in the 2008–2012 American Community Survey estimates. They describe the share bicycling to work within each group, rather than the group’s share of all bicycle commuters.
Income, children, and vehicle access
The household figures show higher bicycle commuting rates among several lower-income groups. Workers in households earning less than $10,000 had a rate of 1.5% in 2008–2012. The rate was 1.1% for households earning $10,000 to $14,999, 1.0% for $15,000 to $24,999, 0.7% for $25,000 to $34,999, and 0.6% for $35,000 to $49,999.
Vehicle availability showed an especially large difference. Workers with no available household vehicle bicycled to work at a rate of 2.8%. The rate was 0.8% for workers with one available vehicle, 0.4% for those with two vehicles, and 0.3% for those with three or more available household vehicles.
The household-children comparison was narrower. Workers in households with no own children had a rate of 0.7%, compared with 0.5% for workers in households with children under age 6. These are household classifications associated with workers, not measures of whether a child traveled by bicycle.
Taken together, the income and vehicle-access figures indicate that bicycle commuting was more common in the reported estimates among workers with fewer household transportation resources. The figures alone do not establish why those differences occurred, and they do not measure bicycle ownership, infrastructure, safety, or commuting preferences.
Commute duration and departure time
The average bicycle commute lasted 19.3 minutes in 2008–2012. Travel-time figures exclude people who worked at home. The report also presents bicycle commuting as a share within each total travel-time group: 0.8% for trips under 10 minutes, 0.9% for trips of 10 to 14 minutes, 0.7% for 15 to 19 minutes, and 0.6% for 20 to 24 minutes.
For longer travel-time groups, the corresponding rates were 0.4% for 25 to 29 minutes, 0.5% for 30 to 34 minutes, 0.4% for 35 to 44 minutes, 0.3% for 45 to 59 minutes, and 0.3% for 60 minutes or more. These are percentages of workers in each travel-time group who bicycled, not the percentage distribution of bicycle commuters by trip duration.
Departure time also varied in the published estimates. Bicycle commuting was 0.5% among workers leaving between midnight and 4:59 a.m.; 0.4% for 5:00–5:59 a.m.; 0.4% for 6:00–6:59 a.m.; and 0.4% for 7:00–7:59 a.m. It was 0.7% for 8:00–8:59 a.m. and 1.1% for 9:00–11:59 a.m. The rate was 0.8% for noon–3:59 p.m. and 0.7% for 4:00–11:59 p.m.
The 19.3-minute average and the group percentages answer different questions. The average summarizes bicycle commuters’ travel time, while each time-group percentage compares bicycle commuting with all commuting in that same duration category.
Home and workplace location
The relationship between a worker’s home and workplace was also associated with bicycle commuting. Workers whose residence and workplace were in the same census-defined place bicycled to work at a rate of 1.2% in 2008–2012. For workers whose workplace was outside their place of residence, the rate was 0.3%.
The 1.2% rate for workers living and working in the same place was about four times the 0.3% rate for workers whose workplace was outside their place of residence. This comparison concerns census-defined place boundaries, not necessarily a particular distance threshold. A worker can live and work in the same place while traveling a longer or shorter route than another worker in the same category.
These results also help put city-level bicycle commuting in context. A principal city, a suburb, a metropolitan area, and a census-defined place describe different geographic units. Comparing them without keeping the geography explicit can make a local rate appear to represent a broader population than it does.
The Census Bureau estimates cover workers age 16 and over and generally use the 2008–2012 five-year American Community Survey sample. Percentages are reported as published and may be subject to sampling error. The estimates measure the principal usual mode of travel from home to work, so they do not capture every occasional bicycle commute or every trip made by bicycle for purposes other than work.