Facilities Statistics

This section contains:

• What do people want?
• If you build it, they will come
• Bicycle facilities and safety
• Facilities and kids

What do people want?:

• According to a government survey, almost half (47%) of Americans 16 and older say they would like to see more bike paths, lanes, and trails in their community.   - Royal, D., and D. Miller-Steiger, 2008, National Survey of Bicyclist and Pedestrian Attitudes and Behavior, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

• In a summer 2008 AARP survey, 15% of older adults said they had ridden a bicycle more frequently since gas prices had risen.  Yet, only 4 in 10 said they thought their neighborhood had adequate bicycle accommodations.   - Skufca, L., 2008, Is the cost of gas leading Americans to use alternative transportation?, AARP

• Half of 700 New York City office workers living within 10 miles of their job said they would bike to work if provided with safe lanes, secure parking, and wash-up facilities.   - Pucher, J. et al., 1999, Bicycling renaissance in North America?: Recent trends and alternative policies to promote bicycling, Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 33, 625-54

• Only 15% of bike commuters say their employers provide bike facilities.   - Moritz, W., 1997, Survey of North American bicycle commuters: Design and aggregate results, Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, 1578, 91-101

• In a survey of bicycling visitors to North Carolina's northern Outer Banks region, nearly two-thirds indicated that they felt safer riding on bicycling facilities, more than 75% felt that additional bicycle facilities should be built, and nine out of ten strongly agreed that state and/or federal tax dollars should be used to build more bicycle facilities.   - North Carolina Department of Transportation Division of Bicycle and Pedestrian Transportation, 2004, The Economic Impact of Investments in Bicycle Facilities: A Case Study of the North Carolina Northern Outer Banks

• Bicyclists travel 67% longer on average to include a trail facility on their route.              - Krizek, K., et al., 2007, A detailed analysis of how an urban trail system affects cyclists' travel, Transportation, 34, 611-24

• Bicycle commuters would be willing to increase their commute time by 75%, a value of $6.52 per round-trip, to have an on-street bicycle lane.   - Krizek, K., 2006, Two approaches to valuing some of bicycle facilities' presumed benefits, Journal of the American Planning Association, 72, 309-19

• According to a survey of Portland, OR, residents, the top three most desired next steps for the city include "increase and improve bike lanes" and "increase car-free streets & zones".  - City of Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability, 2009, Central Portland Plan Community Survey Results Summary Report

• Residents who choose to live in a city because of a supportive bicycling environment are 1.69 times as likely to bicycle than residents who do not.   - Xing, Y., et al., 2008, Factors associated with bicycle ownership and use: A study of 6 small U.S. cities, Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2007, Paper #08-1273

• Individuals who have not bicycled in the past 30 days are less satisfied with the state of bicycle facilities than those who have.   - National Survey of Pedestrian and Bicyclist Attitudes and Behaviors Report, 2002, in Sener et al., 2008, An analysis of bicyclists and bicycling characteristics: Who, why, and how much are they bicycling?

If you build it, they will come:

• From 1992-2005 Portland, Ore., increased its bikeway network by 215%, and during that period bicycle commuting doubled.   - Birk, M., and R. Geller, 2005, Bridging the gaps: How the quality and quantity of a connected bikeway network correlates with increasing bicycle use, Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2006 Paper #06-0667

• Bicycles represent 13% of all vehicles on four of Portland's bicycle-friendly Willamette River bridges. - City of Portland Office of Transportation, 2008, Portland Bicycle Counts 2008

• Since the 1990s the city of Cambridge, Mass., has installed 37 miles of bikes lanes and paths.  From 2002-2006, the number of cyclists increased 70%.   -City of Cambridge in "Menino pedals for cycle-friendly city: Boston to unveil its first dedicated bike lanes," May 13, 2008, M. Levinson, The Boston Globe

• Half of 700 New York City office workers living within 10 miles of their job said they would bike to work if provided with safe lanes, secure parking, and wash-up facilities.   - Pucher, J. et al., 1999, Bicycling renaissance in North America?: Recent trends and alternative policies to promote bicycling, Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 33, 625-54

• Since 2007 140 miles of new bicycle routes have been added to New York City's on-street bicycle network.  In that time, commuter cycling grew 35%.  - New York City Department of Transportation, 2008, Bicycle Screenline Count  
  

• The provision of traffic free bike routes could produce a 17 to 101% increase in cycling.   - Parkin, J., et al., 2008, Estimation of the determinants of bicycle mode share for the journey to work using census data, 35, 93-109

• Two years after bike lines were designated, bike traffic on Toronto streets increased 23% on average.   - Pucher, J. et al., 1999, Bicycling renaissance in North America?: Recent trends and alternative policies to promote bicycling, Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 33, 625-54

• One year after a bike path in Los Angeles was built user traffic increased 38%.              - Cohen, D., et al., 2008, Impact of a new bicycle path on physical activity, Preventive Medicine, 46, 80-81

• Living closer to a rail-trail is positively associated with active transportation.   - Troped, P., et al., 2003, Correlates of recreational and transportation physical activity among adults in a New England community, Preventive Medicine, 37, 304-10

• After a bike and pedestrian lane was installed on a South Carolina bridge, 67% of users indicated that their activity levels had increased since the opening of the lane, and 10% are using the bridge to commute to work.  - McCarthy, D., 2009, "Wonder’s Way Bike Pedestrian Pathway on the Arthur Ravenel, Jr. Bridge: A Successful Model for Facilitating Active Living in Lowcountry South Carolina"

• Residents of neighborhoods with a high bicycle lane density and population density bicycle more.   - Sener et al., 2008, An analysis of bicyclists and bicycling characteristics: Who, why, and how much are they bicycling?

• People are less likely to bicycle where pavement quality is poor.   - Sener et al., 2008, An analysis of bicyclists and bicycling characteristics: Who, why, and how much are they bicycling?

• People are more likely to bike commute if they have secure parking and showers at their work.   - Sener et al., 2008, An analysis of bicyclists and bicycling characteristics: Who, why, and how much are they bicycling?

• Land use plans that include non-automobile transportation improvements and more comprehensive policies to guide development are positively associated with both transportation- and leisure-related physical activity.   - Aytu, S., et al., 2008, The sociodemographics of land use planning: relationships to physical activity, accessibility, and equity, Health & Place, 14, 367-85

• Bicycle facilties are most effective in highly-accessible urban areas where a large number of commute trips can take place across short distances.   - Douma and Cleaveland, 2008, The impact of bicycle facilities on commute mode share, Minnesota Department of Transportation research report 2008-33

Bicycle facilities and safety:

• Bicycle safety improvements attract proportionately more people to bicycling than automobile safety improvements (i.e. a 10% increase in safety results in a greater than 10% increase in the share of people bicycle commuting).   - Noland, R., 1995, Perceived risk and modal choice: Risk compensation in transportation systems, Accident Analysis & Prevention, 27, 503-521

• In a survey of bicycling visitors to North Carolina's northern Outer Banks region, nearly two-thirds indicated that they felt safer riding on bicycling facilities, more than 75% felt that additional bicycle facilities should be built, and nine out of ten strongly agreed that state and/or federal tax dollars should be used to build more bicycle facilities.   - North Carolina Department of Transportation Division of Bicycle and Pedestrian Transportation, 2004, The Economic Impact of Investments in Bicycle Facilities: A Case Study of the North Carolina Northern Outer Banks

• Major streets without bike facilities are where the most bike crashes happen, followed by minor streets without facilities, bike paths, and then bike lanes.   - Moritz, W., 1997, Survey of North American bicycle commuters: Design and aggregate results, Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, 1578, 91-101

Facilities and kids:

• Children are less likely to bike or walk to school when there is a busy road barrier en route to school, or when parents beleive that there are no lights or crossings for their child to use.  - Timperio, A., et al., 2006, Personal, family, social, and environmental correlates of active commuting to school, American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 30, 45-51

• An evaluation of California's Safe Routes to School projects found that five of 10 selected projects were successful at increasing perceived safety, safety-related behaviors, and the number of children bicycling and walking to school.   - Boarnet, M, et al., 2005, California's Safe Routes to School program: Impacts on walking, bicycling, and pedestrian safety, Journal of the American Planning Association, 71, 301-317

• Kids who bike or walk to recreation sites (parks, playgrounds, etc.) use them more often.  The safer it is to bike or walk to play sites, the more likely it is that kids will bike or walk there.   - Grow, H., et al., 2008, Where are youth active? Roles of proximity, active transport, and built environment, Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 40, 2071-2079

• In a California study, children who passed by completed Safe Routes to School projects were more likely to show increases in active travel to school compared to children who didn't pass projects (15% vs 4%).   - Boarnet, M, et al., 2005, Evaluation of the California Safe Routes to School legislation: urban form changes and children's active transportation to school, American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 28, 134-40