Well the way many cyclist cycle I would call them space hogs. They forget that there are pedestrians that also share the road with them.

Thge percentages are meaning less without the raw numbers which I suspect are low. In the real world of commuting how is someone from Queens or Staten Island going to safely commute the 15+ miles into Manhattan? They are not. They will take subways, express buses or the ferry.

For Manhattanites commuting to jobs in Manhattan it’s doable. I still think it’s risky but to each his own.

Move over Portland, New York is fast becoming the pattern city for bicycling in America.

Jackie, I’m sorry if you don’t like math or bicycles but you’ve failed to establish that there is anything dishonest in the presentation or the data. Both the raw numbers and the percentages are relevant, as always, and they are both readily available. I’m plenty happy with the raw numbers, tho, because I am one (1) of them. I started riding daily during your empress’s reign, and I couldn’t be happier than to see my tax dollars spent in this way.

I wish my fellow pedestrians would start respecting bicyclists more so that the bicyclists would find it in their hearts to respect us back.

Wow.
The lack of basic understanding of this statistic is stunning. Just as the total number of cars crossing 4 bridges and on the west side highway would not in any way equal the total number of cars driving in New York City – neither do these raw numbers equal the total number of cyclists in New York City. 2 or 3 times more? I’d say the daily total is probably closer more like 10 times more than the 15,495. Not all cyclists are internet reading livable streets advocates. A huge number are recent immigrants and the poor, commuting between apartments and work in boroughs other than Manhattan.

The raw numbers are only useful as a means to monitor the general trend of cycling. The idea is, if there are more people crossing those bridges and on the west side path, there is likely a proportionally larger number of cyclists in the entire city.

So many points well taken above. There is a huge Latino community in western and central Queens who bicycle into Manhattan each day, many to work in the grocery and food service industries. Many of them head uptown from the Queensboro Bridge and never make it into the DoT screenline counts which so the 66%+ increase. I commuted in when I lived in Long Island City, I was much closer to work in midtown than many I knew who lived uptown and downtown.

Obviously the modal share for bicycling is still very small in absolute terms compared to the NYC population, but the rate of increase is astounding and augurs big changes in the profile and political power of the cycling community in months and years to come. Not to mention the immediate “safety in numbers” effect.

The 66% growth in bike commuter trips from 2007 to 2009 measured by the NYC DOT screenline counts is extremely encouraging and should generate political and public support for continued expansion of the bikeway network in NYC. BUT the DOT screenline counts are misleading and highly unrepresentative for NYC as a whole. They overestimate the actual growth in cycling for various reasons. Most importantly, the screenline counts are all focused on the lower half of Manhattan, basically the CBD south of 50th Street, and totally ignore what is going on in the outer boroughs except for trips to and from Lower Manhattan. The US Census (annual ACS surveys) reports a DECLINE in worktrips in NYC by bike from 2007 to 2008 when all sections of all five NYC boroughs are included in the survey, instead of just the tiny portion of NYC that is included in the screenline counts. That ACS US Census survey finding of reduced bike trips to work from 2007 to 2008 might be a statistical quirk, and I certainly do not believe that cycling actually declined. But even over the long term, Census data show a much smaller growth in cycling since 2000 than portayed by the screenline counts, about a doubling instead of a quadrupling. And a doubling in biking to work is just fine, very impressive indeed. And NYC DOT is to be congratulated for their fine work and encouraged to do more. But why is DOT using a screenline count with changing methodologies over time and restricted to a tiny portion of NYC? Why ignore the other four boroughs entirely, and even the upper portion of Manhattan? At least the US Census ACS methodology is consistent over time and the exact same methodology used for all cities and metropolitan areas throughout the USA. Incidentally, according to the US Census ACS numbers, the bike share of work trips in all five boroughs in NYC was 0.6% in 2008, compared with 6.0% in Portland. Yet with only a tenth as high a share of work trips by bike, NYC DOT claims that NYC is “the bicycling capital of the nation.” Time for a reality check. I would like to have NYC DOT explain the discrepancy between their screenline counts with changing methodologies, and the official US Census surveys, which are done every year and use the same methodology.

Clarence, your instinct seems to be correct; the census says that Brooklyn and Manhattan together account for 80% of New York cyclist commuters. Note that this data exempts non-work trips, including commutes to school, and that the margin of error is huge at ±20%. Although the census data does show a decrease 2007-2008, the difference is not statistically significant. At best we can say that over the year, the 35% annual increase figure seems overstated.

In 2008 the census reported 24,428 people commuting to work primarily by bicycle, indicating a multiplier of roughly 1.5X compared to the DOT numbers (note that DOT records round trips as distinct trips, while the census does not).

This information came from table B08301 “MEANS OF TRANSPORTATION TO WORK”.

My own observation is that bicycling is up for all kinds of purposes. People on bicycles were rare 20 years ago; now they are common.

I wonder if it would be possible for someone to get some PSAs up in, say, February. I didn’t think bicycle travel was practical until I actually did it enough times for my muscles to get used to it.

@Patrick

It’s about 15 miles from Oakwood, SI to midtown Manhattan, by car. Maybe a little less if you figure by bicycle to the SI ferry to Manhattan, but still a long impractical trip.

The SI Advance an article about a handful of people who commute from the north shore of SI to jobs in lower Manhattan. That’s a much shorter trip but still risky because of the traffic patterns on SI. Only a few main roads, no true street grid, narrow streets, etc. The road network here is basically what the Dutch and British left us from colonial times.