Good News, Everyone! People Are Riding More Than Ever
Wondering if that bike boom we talked about so much during the height of the pandemic is still a thing? Survey says: Yes, it really is. According to a recent report from StreetLight based on data from their Active Transportation Monitor, ridership in the US is up a whopping 37 percent since 2019. In fact, every metropolitan city with about 5 million people or more saw at least a 25 percent increase in bicycling activity during that time.
The biggest growth came in dense urban areas, likely spurred on by the desire to avoid public transportation like trains, buses and subways at the height of the pandemic in 2020. San Diego, California, saw the biggest bump in the bike commuter rankings by city, while NYC and San Francisco enjoyed steady growth as well.
NYC was the real pandemic cycling hotspot though, topping the city ranks for cycling growth with the number of trips by bike actually almost doubling between 2019 and 2022. This isn't surprising, given the constraints of subway travel during the pandemic, and the relatively short distance required to pedal from point to point in Manhattan.
Oddly enough, the bike haven that is Portland, Oregon, was one of the six cities in the U.S. that experienced a lower rate of cycling growth in this time.
Outside of cities, states overall are seeing a rise in ridership. StreetLights noted that all of the top 10 U.S. states by population saw at least a 25 percent increase in biking activity between 2019 and 2022. States with serious cycling momentum included New Jersey, Rhode Island, Delaware, New York, Massachusetts, California, and Kentucky.
However, the caveat to these optimistic numbers is that in the last year—between 2022 and 2023—the growth has stagnated. But while the cycling industry's economy may have fallen into tough times due to this flatline in the last year, the good news is that more people are riding. We're just not seeing a huge increase in the number of people joining the crowd.
The number of riders rose the most sharply in 2020 with a 24 percent increase in ridership, which was when the 'bike boom' caused bike manufacturers to go wild trying frantically to source enough bikes to meet the rising demand. Those new cyclists presumably have newish bikes and likely aren't looking to upgrade at the moment.
The study also noted that the stagnation in the growth should be perceived as a warning. “Continued investment in safety-focused active transportation infrastructure—especially to support community connectivity, in addition to recreational access—will be critical to re-animating growth,” the authors concluded.
You can access Streetlight's full report here for more information, and to see how they use Big Data to help shed light on pedestrian and cyclist trends to positively impact infrastructure decisions.
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