The recession may have put a dent in the bike commuting trend, but a recent report shows that the number of bicyclists using Portland’s bridges is up again.
Since the early 1990s, the City of Portland has counted the number of bicyclists who cross the four downtown bridges that are the most “bike friendly”: the Broadway, Burnside, Hawthorne and Steel bridges. In 1991 just 2,855 cyclists a day crossed the four bridges. The number increased each year until the recession of 2009, when cyclists declined to 15,750 from 16,700 in 2008. There were also fewer car trips as unemployment increased and fewer people commuted to work.
Highlights of the 2010 study, which is based on weekday summer traffic counts, include
- 17,576 daily bike trips across the four bridges, the most ever counted and up 12% over 2009.
- Bicyclists represented 14% of all vehicle trips across the four bridges, an increase of 1% over 2009. In 2000 bikes accounted for just 5% of vehicles.
- On the Hawthorne Bridge, the 7,133 cyclists represented 20% of all vehicle trips, down 1% from 2009.
- Bicycles represented 17, 16 and 5 percent of all vehicles on the Steel, Broadway, and Burnside bridges, respectively, compared to 18, 12 and 5 percent in 2009.
- Bike traffic on the Broadway Bridge increased to 5,291 trips from 3,825 in 2009 even with streetcar construction that caused detours and bridge closures.
- Since 2000, the overall trend in Portland bike traffic was up 190%, roughly a tripling in use.
A few other interesting tidbits from the study:
- 77% of riders wear a helmet
- 69% of cyclists are male, 31% are female
The number of bike bridge trips would have been even higher if the City had included trips across the Morrison Bridge. Those increased in 2010 after the opening of a new shared use path on the south side of the bridge.
Multnomah County maintains the Hawthorne Bridge, the busiest bike bridge in Portland, as well as the Broadway, Burnside and Morrison.
The county bridge in Portland with the fewest bicyclists is the Sellwood. Only 440 cyclists brave its narrow four foot sidewalk or traffic lanes these days. However, the new Sellwood Bridge, with its wide sidewalks and bike lanes, is expected to become nearly as popular for bicyclists as the Hawthorne. Studies predict a big increase in bicycle and pedestrian trips when the new bridge opens in 2016, leading to 7,760 daily bike trips by 2035.
For more information, read the full report here.