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National Household Travel Survey — short trips analysis
As promised, here are some more numbers from the National Household Travel Survey. The League and America Bikes have put together this fact sheet on trip distance and mode.
The good news is that the share of all trips made by bicycle is up 25 percent since 2001, to one percent. The bad news is that even short trips are still dominated by privately owned vehicles, a category of vehicle that does not include bikes. Half of all trips are three miles or less, but fewer than 2 percent of those trips are made by bicycle, while 72 percent of them are driven. Private vehicles like cars, pick-up trucks, and SUVs, account for 60 percent of trips of a mile or less. Think about that next time you hear people wondering why we have such big problems with the environment, health and childhood obesity, and traffic congestion.
Eighty-five percent of bicycling trips are three miles or less, but nearly 58 percent of transit trips are longer than that. This fact — that most transit trips are longer than most bike trips — reinforces the compatible nature of the two. In regions with transit service, biking and transit together will get you pretty much wherever you want to go. Transit agencies should do more to promote bike-transit connections.
There are many worthy tables and graphs to be made with this data. For now, here is a simple one that illustrates the 30-40-50 trip distance concept. That is, nearly 30 percent of trips are a mile or shorter, 40 percent are two miles or shorter and 50 percent are three miles or shorter. It gives you a sense of how much of our daily travel involves distances that can be easily walked and biked.
|
Trip distance in miles |
||
|
Mileage |
Percent |
Cumulative Percent |
|
1 mile or less |
28 |
28 |
|
1.1 – 2 miles |
13 |
40 |
|
2.1 – 3 miles |
9 |
50 |
|
3.1 – 4 miles |
6 |
56 |
|
4.1 – 5 miles |
7 |
63 |
|
More the 5 miles |
37 |
100 |
Again, check out the fact sheet for more: http://www.bikeleague.org/resources/reports/pdfs/nhts09.pdf
…and see our earlier post on the 2009 NHTS.
Our thanks to the FHWA Office of Policy for help accessing these data.
Darren Flusche
League Policy Director
Flusche joined the League in April 2009 and has a B.A. in history from Syracuse University and a Masters of Public Administration with a concentration in public policy analysis from New York University.
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January 26th, 2010 at 8:06 am
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Darren Flusche, Wielrijder. Wielrijder said: Bikeleague.org Blog – League of Amer. Bicyclists Mag. http://bit.ly/88k9WN [...]
February 4th, 2010 at 9:25 am
[...] National Household Travel Survey — short trips analysis [...]
February 23rd, 2010 at 12:00 pm
The difficulty with this data is that we don’t know what the trips are for. Why do we take a trip of less than 3 miles? What do we do when we get there? How much stuff, or how many people, are we coming home with?
While it is possible to get groceries by bike, or pull kids home from school in a trailer, or ride around in a pedi-cab, or whatever, it’s not very pleasant to take that same bike out on longer trips, and it’s not always possible or desireable to carry the load by bike (half-ton of bricks, anyone?)
I agree that far more short trips could be on foot or by bike, but this data will get thrown right back at you because everyone who drives will have a “special circumstance” that makes biking it impossible for them.
February 23rd, 2010 at 1:46 pm
[...] and not his personal opinion on the matter. According to the League of American Bicyclists, the share of all trips by bicycle is up 25% since 2001, and reports abound about increased bicycle commuting in most major cities. [...]
February 27th, 2010 at 8:42 am
over the years, the automobile vehicle
has been parked while the bicycle has
completed all of the miles for the trips
all year round.
In all this snow, my mountain bicycle
with Kenda Klondike tires have transported
me through a few blizzards, snow,ice roads
for various destinations.
researching various public transportation
options in the area.
amtrak will not take a full size bicycle
on the train. A folding bicycle is a
option.
septa trains allow bicycle on board
on off peak hours.
September 27th, 2010 at 9:06 pm
For some reason i’m receiving a blank page as i make an attempt to post a comment,do you know the reasons why its occurence?i’m implementing oprea web-browser
October 31st, 2010 at 9:12 pm
Those statistics are pretty bad, but do they take into account that a lot of those trips could be to the grocery store where you need a car, or in places where the whether really isn’t very biker friendly (rain, snow, etc.). Or what about car pulling, a single mother can’t load up all of her children on a bike. So I agree that people in this country need to do more for themselves and the environment but i question the relevance of those statistics.
November 17th, 2010 at 6:10 am
I live in Paris and we have a bike share system which is extremely cheap and runs throughout the city. It is these kinds of projects which could save us yet.
November 27th, 2010 at 6:18 pm
At least the figures are on the up, that is definatly the right direction.
In our city , security of bikes can be a problem so Bike locks can be a nice additional bit of business for the local cycle shops. Then when cyclists lose the keys, us locksmiths are then required!
November 27th, 2010 at 6:21 pm
Its funny that your last commentor said what he said! Bike security is probably the same everywhere these days. Locksmiths are busy (on occaision) with saving negligent cyclists from walking home to!
December 18th, 2010 at 4:14 am
Great info about biking. Will surely revisit.
February 21st, 2011 at 3:42 pm
I recently bought a bike because I’d like to lower our family’s carbon emission. Sometimes it is just an errand that is 10-15 blocks away. Obviously a bicycle is the best way to go to cut down on fuel costs as well.
May 29th, 2011 at 12:34 am
The difficulty with this data is that we don’t know what the trips are for. Why do we take a trip of less than 3 miles? What do we do when we get there? How much stuff, or how many people, are we coming work with? Locksmith in Las vegas
August 9th, 2011 at 3:48 pm
[...] to get done, friends and family to visit, and activities to engage in. 50% of all trips are three miles or less, which is good, right? Well, yes…but it leaves 50% of trips which are longer, and the fact [...]
September 14th, 2011 at 10:17 am
[...] Around 50% of all car trips in the U.S. are three miles or less. This is ridiculously short—the engine doesn’t even warm up. But on a bike that distance takes about 15 minutes, a wonderful length of time that lets you clear your head and make some space in your life. [...]
September 26th, 2011 at 11:10 pm
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