(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.
- 16,711 ave. daily bridge trips
- 8% bike commute mode share
- 28% one-year increase in bike
traffic citywide
That’s up from 6% in the 2007 survey and up from 3% in 1997, when they first asked the question.
10% of those surveyed said the bicycle was their secondary mode of transportation to work. This means that a bicycle is used to get to work by 18% of Portlanders (either as a primary or secondary vehicle) citywide.
Also, according to numbers revealed in a presentation given by PDOT bike coordinator Roger Geller in Seattle last week, in 2008, there were 16,711 average daily bike trips across the four main downtown bridges (Hawthorne, Burnside, Steel and Broadway) — a 15% increase over last year’s number.
Portland’s one-year increase in non-bridge traffic (based on counts from 68 locations city-wide) has jumped 32% (for a combined bridge and non-bridge increase of 28%).
Based on counts from 25 locations city-wide, Portland’s bike traffic has increased 190% since 2000/2001.
These numbers are impressive and I’m looking forward to seeing the full reports, which should be released in the coming weeks.