Cycling levels increase 80% in five years, says New York DoT

New data stemming from a New York Department of Transportation report has revealed cycling levels in the city to have jumped 80% in five years.

With around 75% more cycling lanes provision added since 2005, the city has achieved rapid modal share growth in parts of the city otherwise reduced to a crawl by motor traffic. In the last five years the on street bike network has grown by nearly 300 miles in length, though just 45 miles of that is currently protected. During 2016, the city installed a record 18 miles of protected cycleway, as well as over 60 miles of “dedicated space for cycling”.

“With this expansion of bicycle routes on City streets, along with the miles of new greenway paths in public parks, and the introduction of bike share, there have never been more people biking in New York City,” says the report.

25% of New Yorkers (1,594,000 citizens) are said to ride a bike at least once a year, with 49% of that pool (778,000) outlining that they take to cycling several times a month. On a typical day around 450,000 trips by bike take place, though these figures do fluctuate significantly between summer and winter.

Between 2009 and 2014, analysis further demonstrated that around 340,000 more citizens have cycled at least once a year. This period further revealed a 49% growth in usage several times a month.

Journey types are explored in depth, with 86,000 adults biking to work, or assisting their children to school by bike. Overall, daily trips saw a 7% growth between 2014 to 2015, further indicating that citizens are responding to the creation of infrastructure. Commuting is said to represent around one fifth trips and spiked most sharply in Manhattan, which achieved a 98% growth in five years.

Growth has fluctuated between boroughs, with Manhattan and Brooklyn posting 98 and 83% increases between 2010 and 2015. Queens jumped 59%, Staten Island 22% and the Bronx 19%.

By contrast, New York has become one of the more progressive U.S. cities, more than doubling LA’s 40% increase between 2010 to 2015.

Bike Share
The Citi Bike hire scheme plays its part in assisting citizens without access to a bike to move around the city and has spiked sharply since its 2013 debut. Between 2015 to 2016 a 41% growth in the scheme’s usage became evident.

Citi Bike is now North America’s largest hire scheme, accounting for 38,491 trips per day on average. The scheme is also set to expand in 2017.

This article has now been added to CyclingIndustry.News’ series on cities growing modal share for cycling around the globe.