75,000 Bicycle Trips a Day in San Francisco
I’ll admit it, I love numbers. And I love bicycling, as you know. So, running across this recent statistic on one of the sites I used to write for, Earth & Industry, brought a little light to my face.
Here’s more from Alison Leahy on San Francisco’s bicycle ridership growth:
“Urban cycling is on the rise. A report from the San Francisco Municipal Transit Authority indicates a 71% increase in ridership since 2006, and with a bicycle share program rolling out this summer, the city may soon have the highest per-capita bicycle use in North America.”
71% increase?! That’s astounding, and great news. Also, I imagine San Francisco’s regional neighbor to the north known for its bike culture and bike-friendliness (and naked bike rides), Portland, must have a bit of a competitive burst rising in its blood after seeing that San Francisco could be the top bicycling city in North America per-capita (if the folks in Portland have seen the news). Will have to see what Portland has up its sleeve in response to this.
Back to Leahy’s post:
“Regional transportation models estimate that there are 75,000 daily bicycle trips in San Francisco. About one fifth of these trips takes place during peak evening hours between 5:00 and 6:30 PM.”
San Francisco has added 71 bike lanes in the last year. It has also “created a separated bikeway on a major downtown thoroughfare, added 15 bicycle corrals, and continues to collaborate with the SFMTA for traffic calming, road maintenance, and the prioritization of safe routes.” As someone who studied these matters for my master’s thesis, I’ll tell you that’s all that’s needed to stimulate a lot more bicycle ridership.
San Francisco intends to have 20% of trips in the city being made by bicycle by 2020. Ambitious goal, but it’s doing a lot to achieve that!
Image Credits: San Francisco bicyclists via shutterstock; all other images from SFMTA 2011 Bicycle Count Report via Earth & Industry
About the Author
Zachary Shahan is the director of CleanTechnica, the most popular cleantech-focused website in the world, and Planetsave, a world-leading green and science news site. He has been covering green news of various sorts since 2008, and he has been especially focused on solar energy, electric vehicles, and wind energy since 2009. Aside from his work on CleanTechnica and Planetsave, he's the founder and director of Solar Love, EV Obsession, and Bikocity. To connect with Zach on some of your favorite social networks, go to ZacharyShahan.com and click on the relevant buttons.
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