According to a new U.S. Census Bureau report, Philadelphia and many other cities are experiencing a decline in automobile commuting.
According to the report, titled “Who Drives to Work?” a whopping 85.8 percent of American workers still commute to work in a car—and 76.4 percent drive solo. But in many large metro areas, including Philadelphia, car usage is on the decline.
In the region, which includes Camden, Wilmington, and their regional surrounding areas, car commuting has fallen by 2.7 percent, which makes us seventh amongst metro areas with populations of 500,000 or greater with the largest declines in car usage.
The greatest decline came from the San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, California region, with a decline of 3.8 percent.
Another finding in the report: Bicycling to work is most prominent amongst low-income workers, or, those earning between $0 and $24,999. For those workers, bike commuting went from 3.1 percent in 2006 to 3.5 percent in 2013.
However, for workers making between $25,000 and $74,999, the amount of bicycling workers increased by a full point: from 1.9 percent to 2.9 percent. You can read the entire report here. There’s lots of good stuff in it.
Philadelphia currently has the largest percentage of bicycle commuters amongst the United States’ big cities, at 2.3 percent.
Randy – that’s awesome to hear that your town is on the decline!
What do you think the role of public transportation plays in this number? I know areas like Los Angeles have poor public transportation. Is there data on their cycling numbers?
Cheers,
Rovo