Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia Releases Latest Report on Cycling Trends

Photo via Flickr user Seth Werkheiser

The Greater Philadelphia Bicycle Coalition released its latest report on cycling trends in Philadelphia this week. The report, Bike PHL Facts, tracks ridership in the city and identifies trends in who is riding, how they are riding and what it means for cycling overall.

The Bicycle Coalition collects data by placing staff and volunteers at major cycling intersections during rush hour times (7:30-9:00 a.m. and 4:30-6:00 p.m.) to manually count the number of cyclists. It supplements these numbers with data collected in the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, which looks at a small sample of the U.S. population each year.

Here are some of the key data points:

//e.infogr.am/js/embed.js

• The number of people who commute by bike rose from 2.16 percent in 2009 to 2.3 percent in 2012
• Cycling commuter rates are higher than five percent in Center City and South Philadelphia
•  The Schuylkill River crossings by bike per peak hour grew from 601 in 2008 to 870 in 2013
• Women represent 32 percent of all cyclists, higher than the national average of 24 percent

The last report of this kind from the Bicycle Coalition came out in 2011, titled “Mode Shift: Philadelphia Two-Wheeled Revolution in Progress,” and it also showed an upward trend in cycling.

Full report available here.