How many bike to work in Detroit?
www.pedbikeimages.org / Dan Burden
Ever wonder how many people are biking or walking to work in Metro Detroit? How do we compare with the bike friendly cities of Chicago and Portland?
Fortunately the U.S. Census publishes statistics on how people get to work. The below numbers are from 2007, which is before gasoline hit $4 a gallon and encouraged increased bike commuting. We look forward to seeing the 2008 numbers.
Note that the Metro Detroit error margins are generally +/- 0.1%. For cities, the error margins are much larger which makes comparing these numbers somewhat precarious.
One conclusion that can be drawn is women don’t bike to work as frequently as men, but especially in some areas such as Wayne County, Southfield, and Grand Rapids. Even in more bike friendly cities like Ann Arbor, Chicago, and Portland, women workers are much less likely to bike to work. There is no corresponding gender difference among those walking to work in many of these regions (the City of Detroit is an exception). In Metro Detroit, women walk to work more often than men (1.6% vs. 1.4%).
Another conclusion: Detroit has much room for improvement compared to places like Ann Arbor, Chicago, and Portland.
| City/Region | Total Workers (age 16 & over) |
Walk to work |
Bike to work | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | Male | Female | |||
| Michigan | 4,400,918 | 2.3% | 0.4% | 0.5% | 0.2% |
| Metro Detroit | 1,925,690 | 1.5% | 0.2% | 0.3% | 0.1% |
| Wayne County | 758,034 | 1.9% | 0.3% | 0.5% | 0.0% |
| Oakland County | 577,367 | 1.6% | 0.2% | 0.3% | 0.2% |
| Macomb County | 383,058 | 0.9% | 0.1% | 0.1% | 0.1% |
| Genesee County | 170,312 | 1.0% | 0.1% | 0.2% | 0.0% |
| Detroit | 249,970 | 2.7% | 0.3% | 0.7% | 0.0% |
| Southfield | 33,936 | 2.2% | 0.4% | 0.7% | 0.0% |
| Troy | 42,211 | 0.5% | 0.3% | 0.2% | 0.3% |
| Ann Arbor | 55,336 | 13.8% | 2.6% | 3.4% | 1.8% |
| Lansing | 52,690 | 2.5% | 0.4% | 0.5% | 0.3% |
| Grand Rapids | 90,481 | 3.6% | 1.1% | 2.0% | 0.1% |
| Traverse City region | 66,557 | 2.8% | 0.5% | 0.7% | 0.4% |
| Flint | 31,579 | 0.8% | 0.4% | 0.6% | 0.2% |
| Chicago, IL | 1,230,933 | 5.4% | 1.1% | 1.4% | 0.7% |
| Portland, OR | 280,933 | 4.4% | 3.9% | 4.9% | 2.8% |
One question we have is how does the Census Bureau count workers that use bus bike racks? Are they counted as public transit commuters, as bicyclists or both?
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Tags: Ann Arbor, bike to work, Chicago, commuting, Detroit, Grand Rapids, Lansing, Macomb County, Oakland County, Portland, Southfield, Traverse City, Troy, Wayne County
November 25th, 2008 at 10:37 am
i don’t do it as often as the weather has dictated it this fall. maybe once a week at the most now between clawson and pleasant ridge.
for me fall is mtb weather and winter becomes snowboard weather.
November 25th, 2008 at 7:44 pm
Those are some stark numbers–we’ve got a long way to go. Thanks for posting this, Todd.
November 26th, 2008 at 10:09 pm
[…] http://www.m-bike.org/blog/2008/11/25/how-many-bike-to-work-in-detroit […]
November 29th, 2008 at 12:30 am
Do you have any stats for Flint and/or Genesee County?
November 29th, 2008 at 4:57 pm
The numbers for Flint and Genesee County are now added to the original table.
November 29th, 2008 at 6:12 pm
The following comment was emailed via Alex:
when I look at the walk to work # for ann arbor I immediately think of collegiate students working on campus or a local business to meet expenses of college life. Maybe thats a stereotype for ann arbor, but its the logic I have for the high number.
When I look at Detroit’s walk to work #, I think about the importance of city building via economic and acedemic centers. University of Detroit-Mercy, Marygrove, WC3D campuses and WSU all provide local centers for jobs and acedemics, but retail investiment and residential development has not surfaced around some of those centers (WSU the exception because its in midtown next to the large Medical Center). Maybe focusing on density and transportation connections at these academic centers in Detroit could improve the numbers.
I know that its a difficult answer to improve towards, and I dont have the big investiment dollars to make that happen. Some understanding the micro-economics and moving towards improving the local value of business and quality of life could help our neighborhoods grow and improve.
December 26th, 2008 at 10:47 am
I decided to compare to Cincinnati and the county I live in immediately above Cincy. Yikes! Cincinnati is 0.3% that bike and Warren County is 0% that bike to work…. aye carrumba!!