It just keeps growing, and growing, and...
(Photo © J. Maus/BikePortland)

In a report released this morning, the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) says bicycle traffic counts for 2012 were up 3.3 percent over 2011 levels. These counts, which have been conducted annually since 1991, provide an important barometer for how many people are riding bikes in Portland. In addition to bike traffic volumes, the counts also tally gender and helmet usage. PBOT uses a mix of automated "hose" counts as well as manual counts by staff and volunteers. For the 2012 counts, volunteers manually counted 38,500 daily bicycle trips across a record 216 locations throughout the city — which PBOT says translates into more than 190,000 daily bicycle trips once the two-hour peak period counts are extrapolated out.

Here's the summary of 2012's numbers (taken directly from the report): (more...)

An average of over 18,000
trips are made by bike over
Portland's four main downtown
bridges every day.
(Photo © J. Maus/BikePortland)

PBOT released their 2011 Bicycle Counts Report today (PDF). The numbers show that overall there were 6.4 percent more trips made by bike citywide in 2011 compared to 2010. On new neighborhood greenways, the jump in ridership was even greater. At the 11 newly-developed neighborhood greenways (a.k.a. bike boulevards), PBOT recorded a jump of 61 percent.

The Going Street neighborhood greenway saw a particularly large spike with a daily count of 1,585 bicycle trips at NE Going and 9th last year compared to 1,040 daily bicycle trips in 2010.

Overall, bike traffic in Portland is up 219% since 2001. In addition to trip data, the counts also shed light on the gender split (big news on that below), reported collisions, helmet use, and seasonal averages over time. (more...)

Traffic through the Rose Quarter.
(Photo © J. Maus)

The City of Portland Bureau of Transportation released results of their 2010 bike counts today (PDF here). The counts — taken at 153 locations throughout the city — show that bike use climbed in Portland this year after a small dip in 2009. According to the report, the number of bike trips taken in 2010 is up about 8 percent over 2009. Since PBOT began these annual counts in 2000, bicycling has tripled, growing by 190 percent. (more...)

Bike traffic on the Hawthorne Bridge.
(Photo © J. Maus)

The City of Portland Bureau of Transportation has released a full report and analysis on their 2009 bike counts. Last month, an unauthorized and incomplete version of the report leaked to the Willamette Week revealed that bike ridership in Portland had taken its first dip since 1995.

Many theories cropped up to account for this dip and PBOT's just-released report (which was also partially leaked to the Willamette Week yesterday) explains what they feel are three key factors leading to the decline. (more...)

When Willamette Week reporter Beth Slovic broke the story about PBOT's 2009 bike count numbers yesterday, we were shocked. Our surprise was two-fold: First, although we'd heard speculation that the counts would be down compared to 2008, it was still surprising to learn it had actually happened; and second, we had asked PBOT repeatedly for for the results of the counts (which have historically been released in November) but were told that no numbers would be released until January.

Slovic was called out by Joseph Rose of The Oregonian yesterday because a PBOT staffer told him the report didn't exist. Today, Slovic produced a PDF of that preliminary report in order to prove she was not making it up. Much of that report includes information from 2008 (PBOT was using it as a template), but we've confirmed that the 2009 numbers presented are accurate.
(more...)

[UPDATE: The Oregonian's Hard Drive blog has an update on this story]

(Photo © J. Maus)

The Willamette Week has gotten their hands on a preliminary report of this year's bike counts from the City of Portland Bureau of Transportation that shows a decrease in bicycle ridership for 2009.

Here's a snip from Willamette Week reporter Beth Slovic's story (emphasis mine):

"That preliminary report, the 2009 "Portland Bicycle Counts," shows the number of bicycle trips across Portland bridges (and at more than 100 other locations citywide) has fallen a combined average of 6 percent compared with the same time period in 2008."

(more...)

Riders take a trails survey on the Hawthorne Bridge just before rush hour.
(Photo © Elly Blue)

It's bike counting season again, and for the second year in a row there are two concurrent counts going on in Portland. (more...)

Bike traffic in Portland has tripled since 2001.
(Photo � J. Maus)

I gave you a little sneak peek last week, but now PDOT has released their full, 29-page, 2008 Bicycle Count Report (download the 11MB PDF here). In general, biking is way up all over the city. That's not exactly earth-shattering, but some of the numbers and findings are quite interesting.

I don't have time to get into many details, but below are the highlights. (more...)

Bike traffic in Portland.
(Photo � J. Maus)

The City of Portland is sitting on loads of interesting and important data about bike ridership. Full reports on summer bike counts at locations throughout the city and survey results from the City Auditor's Office are all due out in the coming weeks.

However, a few numbers have trickled out of PDOT in recent days.

I'll share a full look at the numbers once the reports are ready, but some of the early numbers I've gleaned from various sources are very exciting.

An annual survey compiled by the City of Portland Auditor's Office (the Service Efforts and Accomplishments Survey) is set to reveal that 8% of Portlanders (citywide) now say that the bicycle is the mode of transportation they use to get to and from work. (more...)