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Cycling is at its highest levels yet in Metro Vancouver: more insight from our trip diary survey

Cycling is at its highest levels yet in Metro Vancouver: more insight from our trip diary survey

Cycling trips and bike mode share in Metro Vancouver, 2011

As Bike to Work Week kicks off this week, we’ve got a plethora of cycling stats for you from the 2011 TransLink trip diary survey.

(As you might remember from last week’s post about popular modes of travel in the region: we do a trip diary survey with over 22,000 households in our region every three to four years, building “snapshot” of a day of Metro Vancouver transportation. We’ve been analyzing the results of the 2011 trip diary now, and we wanted to share what we’re learning about the region with you over the coming weeks and months!)

It turns out cycling is at its highest levels yet in Metro Vancouver, making up 1.8 per cent of trips in the region. That’s 106,500 trips per day, with 55% to and from work!

Again, our press release has the highlights:

The number of bike trips has grown faster than the Metro Vancouver population

  • The total number of bike-only trips increased 26 per cent between 2008 and 2011, from 84,300 to 106,500; while the regional population increased 5.8 per cent from 2,186,200 to 2,313,000. Notably, the number of bike trips in the City of Vancouver increased by 35%
  • 55% of bike trips were to and from work

Bikes are integrating into the transportation network

    As well as the 106,500 daily bike trips, another 6,200 bike trips were combined with other transportation modes:

  • 65% connecting with transit
  • 18% connected with a car as the driver
  • 13% connected with a car as the passenger
    Cyclists are making use of TransLink’s integration of cycling into the overall system:

  • All buses are equipped with bike racks
  • Bikes may be brought onto SkyTrain or West Coast Express (with restrictions as to the number of bikes per car and time of day)
  • Lockers available at most SkyTrain stations and many park-and-ride facilities

Who cycles?

  • 75% of people who bike are between the ages of 25 & 64; that age group makes up 62% of the general population
  • Men are still more likely than women to ride: 71% of cyclists are men
  • Experience with other cities shows women are more likely to ride bikes where there are networks of traffic-protected bikeways.

Region-wide, there were 4.9 bike trips per 100 residents per day.

  • Vancouver (combined with University Endowment Lands) had the highest rate of bike use: 12.1 trips per 100 residents, with the heaviest concentration of bike use along the Broadway Corridor
  • Richmond/Delta: 3.4 trips per hundred
  • North Shore: 2.8
  • Burnaby/New Westminster: 2.6
  • Langley/Surrey/White Rock: 1.7
  • Northeast Sector: 1.7

It’s great to see an upward trend, but there is definitely still lots of potential! The region’s long-term vision, as outlined in the Regional Cycling Strategy, is a 10% cycling mode share by 2040—the trip diary notes that 22% of motorized trips were shorter than 5 km, and many of these trips could be converted to bicycle trips. And TransLink market research from 2010 indicates that nearly 50% of people in the region cycle sometimes, with 25% of people cycling at least once week in at least one season and another 22% cycling at least once a year.

The full briefing paper and graphs for sharing

As always, for all the details, download this in-depth briefing paper, which shares the analysis we’ve done regarding regional mode share based on the trip diary results. You can also see (and share!) these spiffy graphs developed from the info below. (Click to enlarge each one!)

It’s again very useful to know how our region’s doing, especially as we’ll be discussing our 30-year long-range transportation plan in the coming year or so. Feel free to ask us any questions!

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