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18% of Portlanders are commuting by bike at least part of the time. We're way behind Copenhagen and Amsterdam, but making great progress. - WriConsult

Bikeportland.org - October 30, 2008

The City of Portland is sitting on loads of interesting and important data about bike ridership. Full reports on summer bike counts at locations throughout the city and survey results from the City Auditor’s Office are all due out in the coming weeks.

However, a few numbers have trickled out of PDOT in recent days.

I’ll share a full look at the numbers once the reports are ready, but some of the early numbers I’ve gleaned from various sources are very exciting.

An annual survey compiled by the City of Portland Auditor’s Office (the Service Efforts and Accomplishments Survey) is set to reveal that 8% of Portlanders (citywide) now say that the bicycle is the mode of transportation they use to get to and from work.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3081/2441614642_af18038433_m.jpg

Sneak peek at 2008 bike counts:
16,711 ave. daily bridge trips
8% bike commute mode share
28% one-year increase in bike
traffic citywide
That’s up from 6% in the 2007 survey and up from 3% in 1997, when they first asked the question.

10% of those surveyed said the bicycle was their secondary mode of transportation to work. This means that a bicycle is used to get to work by 18% of Portlanders (either as a primary or secondary vehicle) citywide.

Also, according to numbers revealed in a presentation given by PDOT bike coordinator Roger Geller in Seattle last week, in 2008, there were 16,711 average daily bike trips across the four main downtown bridges (Hawthorne, Burnside, Steel and Broadway) — a 15% increase over last year’s number.

Read more ... (http://bikeportland.org/2008/10/30/portland-bike-traffic-up-28-over-last-year/)

That may be true, but if it's anything like the Boulder CO study that said 21% of commuters bike to work every day, the survey may be flawed.

21% might bike SOME weekends but I dont see them on the bike paths during the week.

http://www.dailycamera.com/news/2007/may/08/did-you-bike-to-work-today-city-says-21-percent/

I think the thing to remember is that these figures are for the city of Portland only, which makes up about 30% of the metro area's population. Overall metro figures would be lower, although even the 2000 census put metro area bike commuting at about 4% and things have exploded since then. I don't think the issue of suburbanites commuting into the city is skewing things as in Boulder, because due to our geography the downtown and most other inner eastside counts overwhelmingly carry commuters who live in the city.

In that context the figure of 8% of city commuters primarily traveling by bike is believable, which might push the overall figure to 10-12% of commute trips once you add in the secondary commuters.

I also believe that 18% are riding at least occasionally, as stated by the survey (which is not the same as saying 18% of trips are by bike). I've been commuting regularly for 8 years now, but what has happened in the last year or two - especially in the city - is absolutely mind-boggling. In my neighborhood (not representative of the city as a whole, but typical for the inner eastside) the figure is much higher than that. Every second or third house has a bike commuter now. No exaggeration. At offpeak times it is now common for an intersection in my part of town to have as many bikes as cars waiting for the light. It will be interesting to see if the (temporarily) lower gas prices cool off the bike vibe or not.

Portland amazes me. We have pretty good biking infrastructure here, a relatively fit and active population, generally better weather than Portland, and nowhere near the % of bike commuters. We have challenging riding a few miles West of town, but we can't use that excuse in town. In town, it is remarkably flat.

Do riders in Portland know their left from their right? (Do they ride on the right side of the road? Most of the casual cyclists here seem to toss a coin to decide which side to ride on.)

"Serious" cyclists ride on the right, but you still see a disturbing number of casual cyclists (especially poorer people) riding on the left sometimes.

One of the downsides of the boom in cycling here is that it's bringing out a lot of new cyclists who don't understand the safety issues, and I see as much lawless riding as ever, more helmetless riders than ever, and more than ever riding at night without lights. I expect the lighting problem to be especially bad this winter, starting with this weekend's time change. We have local organizations that do great work to promote bike safety, but they're scrambling to keep up.

Update: the full report has been released. One of the more amazing stats is that bikes are now 20% of all traffic on the Hawthorne Bridge:

http://bikeportland.org/2008/11/06/pdot-reveals-latest-counts-bikes-are-now-20-of-all-hawthorne-bridge-traffic/