In our latest report The State of Bicycling in Philadelphia, we look at how bicycling has fared as our patterns of travel and recreation continue to shift in response to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. The overall story is that bicycle traffic on the Schuylkill River Bridges (Spring Garden, Market, Walnut and South St) during rush hours is up 29% from 2020, but has still not recovered to 2019 levels.
One bright spot has been Indego’s growth which, after a short hiccup in March and early April of 2020, has been operating at record levels ever since. Demand for bikes on our local trails and a car-free MLK Drive certainly boosted Indego’s usage. This trend continued into 2020 and 2021 with more stations and e-bikes. Nearly all of Indego’s growth is e-bike usage, accounting for a third of all Indego trips.
The Census Transportation to Work data once again shows that South Philadelphia continues to set the high watermark for bicycle commuters. It ranks among the top 10 neighborhoods in the nation and number 2 east of the Mississippi River. With more than 6% of workers commuting it compares favorably with better-known bike culture centers like Southeast Portland, Boulder and Palo Alto. Philadelphia maintains its position of having the highest bike commuting rate among U.S. cities with over 1 million residents.
Read the Report: The State of Bicycling in Philadelphia