In Philadelphia, bike ridership into the central city went up 24% from 2005 to 2006. And we thought Portland’s 18% jump was impressive!
To be fair, our Philadelphia friends partially credit a week-long transit strike, and their base numbers of cyclists are significantly smaller than Portland’s. From John Boyle in Philadelphia:
We suspect that the week-long November 2005 Transit Strike was a factor, during the strike (which featured perfect weather) bicycle traffic on the Walnut Street bridge increased by 90%. The temporary rise in gasoline prices earlier in the year may have also contributed to the rise in ridership.
Some other statistics:
Female cyclists 38%
Cyclists wearing helmets 31%
Riding on the sidewalk 24% (this number varied widely by intersection)
Riding the wrong way 2.3%
At 31%, their helmet-wearing is less than half of Portland’s 73%; their 38% female cyclists is higher than our 32%.
One other interesting tidbit: the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia is paid by the downtown business improvement district to do bike counts!
More details behind Portland’s numbers, including groovy graphics.
