DC bike group says fewer now riding bikes to work than in 2012 (?!?!)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Check out these stats from the League of American Bicyclists. They say 13,276 Washingtonians commuted to work on bike in 2023, which is less than the 13,493 who did in 2012. What's up with that? The number of bike lanes, protected and otherwise, has exploded and the numbers are down? It looks like biking to work peaked in 2017 and began declining even before the pandemic. Any good explanations of what's happening here?

https://data.bikeleague.org/data/cities-rates-of-active-commuting/

Any theories on why bike commuting is at an all time high in NYC? And in DC it's less than it was 10 years ago? What are we doing wrong?

because return to work is lower in DC. once again this is a meaningless number without a denominator.

cabi usage is a better indicator

and of course had the bikes = kitten-murder crowd not obstructed bike lanes in NW there would be a lot more commuting including by kids to JR and MacArthur.

we have a denominator and a numerator. the percentage of workers commuting by bike in 2023 was 3 percent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought the theory was that if we build it, they will come. The number of riders seems to be shrinking even as the number of lanes increases.

Still haven’t heard a good response to this.

I hear a bunch of nonsense stories that claim non-quantifiable non work trips are increasing or pointing to CaBi numbers as some sort of vindication. The problem for those people is that the actual data doesn’t support them.

DDOT has bike counters and they are pretty clear about what’s going on regardless of type of bike, purpose of trip or time of day.
https://ddot.dc.gov/page/dc-automated-bicycle-and-pedestrian-counters

People are using Maine Avenue and the Anacostia River Trail a lot. This is likely because the Wharf is not really Metro accessible and it’s probably easier to get out of a Nats game on a bike than by Metro or car. And also because people are enjoying some weekend recreation.

What people are not doing is biking around the rest of the city in any significant numbers. And we know the numbers around the city have to be even worse than you can imagine because they actually removed the counter from the vaunted 15th street cycle track and added more counters along Rock Creek to track more recreational users.

I’m not sure why this is an issue brings out so many liars, but it does.

It brings out the weird conspiracy theorists too. There is no bigger cheerleader for bike lanes than DDOT.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Check out these stats from the League of American Bicyclists. They say 13,276 Washingtonians commuted to work on bike in 2023, which is less than the 13,493 who did in 2012. What's up with that? The number of bike lanes, protected and otherwise, has exploded and the numbers are down? It looks like biking to work peaked in 2017 and began declining even before the pandemic. Any good explanations of what's happening here?

https://data.bikeleague.org/data/cities-rates-of-active-commuting/

Any theories on why bike commuting is at an all time high in NYC? And in DC it's less than it was 10 years ago? What are we doing wrong?

because return to work is lower in DC. once again this is a meaningless number without a denominator.

cabi usage is a better indicator

and of course had the bikes = kitten-murder crowd not obstructed bike lanes in NW there would be a lot more commuting including by kids to JR and MacArthur.

we have a denominator and a numerator. the percentage of workers commuting by bike in 2023 was 3 percent.

Nonsense. I commute by bike and train. Most of the distance is by train. Therefore I am supposedly a train commuter. However, I am also a bike commuter. And as a bike commuter, I can say from personal experience that there are a lot of other people out there on bikes on the streets with me. Though it's true that I haven't asked them individually whether they are also going to work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Check out these stats from the League of American Bicyclists. They say 13,276 Washingtonians commuted to work on bike in 2023, which is less than the 13,493 who did in 2012. What's up with that? The number of bike lanes, protected and otherwise, has exploded and the numbers are down? It looks like biking to work peaked in 2017 and began declining even before the pandemic. Any good explanations of what's happening here?

https://data.bikeleague.org/data/cities-rates-of-active-commuting/

Any theories on why bike commuting is at an all time high in NYC? And in DC it's less than it was 10 years ago? What are we doing wrong?

because return to work is lower in DC. once again this is a meaningless number without a denominator.

cabi usage is a better indicator

and of course had the bikes = kitten-murder crowd not obstructed bike lanes in NW there would be a lot more commuting including by kids to JR and MacArthur.

we have a denominator and a numerator. the percentage of workers commuting by bike in 2023 was 3 percent.

Nonsense. I commute by bike and train. Most of the distance is by train. Therefore I am supposedly a train commuter. However, I am also a bike commuter. And as a bike commuter, I can say from personal experience that there are a lot of other people out there on bikes on the streets with me. Though it's true that I haven't asked them individually whether they are also going to work.

If anything the 3 percent is probably exaggerated. I'm sure some of them biked to work once a couple months ago and now claim they are bike commuters.

[Anonymous]

There bike lanes in my neighborhood that have been there for years that I've never seen a single person use.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Check out these stats from the League of American Bicyclists. They say 13,276 Washingtonians commuted to work on bike in 2023, which is less than the 13,493 who did in 2012. What's up with that? The number of bike lanes, protected and otherwise, has exploded and the numbers are down? It looks like biking to work peaked in 2017 and began declining even before the pandemic. Any good explanations of what's happening here?

https://data.bikeleague.org/data/cities-rates-of-active-commuting/

Any theories on why bike commuting is at an all time high in NYC? And in DC it's less than it was 10 years ago? What are we doing wrong?

because return to work is lower in DC. once again this is a meaningless number without a denominator.

cabi usage is a better indicator

and of course had the bikes = kitten-murder crowd not obstructed bike lanes in NW there would be a lot more commuting including by kids to JR and MacArthur.

we have a denominator and a numerator. the percentage of workers commuting by bike in 2023 was 3 percent.

Nonsense. I commute by bike and train. Most of the distance is by train. Therefore I am supposedly a train commuter. However, I am also a bike commuter. And as a bike commuter, I can say from personal experience that there are a lot of other people out there on bikes on the streets with me. Though it's true that I haven't asked them individually whether they are also going to work.

If anything the 3 percent is probably exaggerated. I'm sure some of them biked to work once a couple months ago and now claim they are bike commuters.

I don't understand why you would want to claim that people who exist, don't exist. What's the point? For fun? It's not like you're persuading anybody.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There bike lanes in my neighborhood that have been there for years that I've never seen a single person use.

Then they're terrible bike lanes. I'm sorry. You should ask DDOT for proper, good bike lanes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There bike lanes in my neighborhood that have been there for years that I've never seen a single person use.

Then they're terrible bike lanes. I'm sorry. You should ask DDOT for proper, good bike lanes.

They're not even air conditioned! Seriously, I love your sense of entitlement. Bike lanes cost more than $300,000 per user and they're still not good enough.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There bike lanes in my neighborhood that have been there for years that I've never seen a single person use.

Then they're terrible bike lanes. I'm sorry. You should ask DDOT for proper, good bike lanes.

They're not even air conditioned! Seriously, I love your sense of entitlement. Bike lanes cost more than $300,000 per user and they're still not good enough.

Yes, you're right, I do feel entitled to safe, useful transportation facilities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought the theory was that if we build it, they will come. The number of riders seems to be shrinking even as the number of lanes increases.

Still haven’t heard a good response to this.

I hear a bunch of nonsense stories that claim non-quantifiable non work trips are increasing or pointing to CaBi numbers as some sort of vindication. The problem for those people is that the actual data doesn’t support them.

DDOT has bike counters and they are pretty clear about what’s going on regardless of type of bike, purpose of trip or time of day.
https://ddot.dc.gov/page/dc-automated-bicycle-and-pedestrian-counters

People are using Maine Avenue and the Anacostia River Trail a lot. This is likely because the Wharf is not really Metro accessible and it’s probably easier to get out of a Nats game on a bike than by Metro or car. And also because people are enjoying some weekend recreation.

What people are not doing is biking around the rest of the city in any significant numbers. And we know the numbers around the city have to be even worse than you can imagine because they actually removed the counter from the vaunted 15th street cycle track and added more counters along Rock Creek to track more recreational users.

I’m not sure why this is an issue brings out so many liars, but it does.

It brings out the weird conspiracy theorists too. There is no bigger cheerleader for bike lanes than DDOT.

They’re not conspiracy theorists. What it exposes is that they will just say anything to continue the lie, even if it means claiming that DDOT are part of some conspiracy against bike lanes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There bike lanes in my neighborhood that have been there for years that I've never seen a single person use.

Then they're terrible bike lanes. I'm sorry. You should ask DDOT for proper, good bike lanes.

They're not even air conditioned! Seriously, I love your sense of entitlement. Bike lanes cost more than $300,000 per user and they're still not good enough.

Yes, you're right, I do feel entitled to safe, useful transportation facilities.

$300,000 per person to subsidize your hobby in a city where one quarter of children live in poverty.

[Anonymous]

Washington Post goes after bike lanes:

"The city has built about 20 miles of bike lanes in the past five years, but despite that, the portion of D.C. residents who bike to work peaked in 2017 and has decreased each year since, falling from 5 percent to 3 percent. So who are these lanes for?"

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/11/20/bicycle-lanes-dc-traffic/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Washington Post goes after bike lanes:

"The city has built about 20 miles of bike lanes in the past five years, but despite that, the portion of D.C. residents who bike to work peaked in 2017 and has decreased each year since, falling from 5 percent to 3 percent. So who are these lanes for?"

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/11/20/bicycle-lanes-dc-traffic/

"The city has a bias in favor of bike lanes no matter whether residents or businesses want them, and a lot of these lanes are being installed in Black, low-income communities. There is a nexus between bike lanes and gentrification."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Washington Post goes after bike lanes:

"The city has built about 20 miles of bike lanes in the past five years, but despite that, the portion of D.C. residents who bike to work peaked in 2017 and has decreased each year since, falling from 5 percent to 3 percent. So who are these lanes for?"

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/11/20/bicycle-lanes-dc-traffic/

The Post is reading DCUM

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Washington Post goes after bike lanes:

"The city has built about 20 miles of bike lanes in the past five years, but despite that, the portion of D.C. residents who bike to work peaked in 2017 and has decreased each year since, falling from 5 percent to 3 percent. So who are these lanes for?"

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/11/20/bicycle-lanes-dc-traffic/

Bike lanes are "weapons of civic planning: They are often installed not to satisfy the barely measurable trickle of residents who pedal to work but mainly to make car traffic worse enough that people will be discouraged from driving."

Very true, and also very dumb. If you make driving miserable in one neighborhood, I'll just stop going to that neighborhood. There are lots of others to choose from.