Less Affluent Americans More Likely to Bike for Transportation
Who are bike improvements for? That can be a contentious question in cities where the implementation of bike infrastructure is associated with affluent white people. But as the above chart from Michael Andersen at People for Bikes shows, lower-income Americans are actually more likely than wealthy people to use a bike to get to work:
...bikes are disproportionately important tools for the lowest-income workers. The reasons are simple, and something any bike commuter would recognize: biking to work is cheap and, in a growing number of cities, convenient.
Still, in some cities, the provision of bike lanes does appear to overlook poorer neighborhoods. That's a basic issue of fairness and equity, though, not an indication that less affluent people don't benefit from safe conditions for biking.
Looking at state level data, in fact, it seems that attempts to make bike commuting more appealing have enticed rich and poor alike.
Andersen explains:
Thanks to its many bike-friendly cities, Oregon is an outlier, but the trend is clear: things that make bike commutes appeal to rich and middle-class workers also seem to make them appeal to poor workers.
The horizontal axis above shows the rate of bike commuting among workers who make more than $35,000 a year. The vertical axis shows the rate among workers who make less than $20,000.
The choices these two groups face are often different. Where a middle-class office worker might be choosing a bike commute instead of becoming a two-car household, a poor grocery worker might be choosing a bike commute instead of relying on bumming rides, walking -- or not even applying for jobs that aren't close to bus lines.
But as this chart shows, everyone in the economy faces choices. The work of cities is to help more people make the choices they and the people in their communities like. And when it comes to biking, there's not a lot of disagreement among poor, rich or middle class about what sort of biking people like.
Elsewhere on the Network today: Greater Greater Washington shares the smart way Chicago keeps its transit stations warm. Naked City reflects on the right and wrong ways to build an "auto mall." And Bike Delaware reports that Governor Jack Markell made safe biking a part of his state-of-the-state speech.
Stay in touch
Sign up for our free newsletter
More from Streetsblog New York City
Cruise Ships Saddle Red Hook with Traffic ‘Nightmare,’ Toxic Fumes
Red Hook is drowning in traffic and smog from cruise ships Mayor Adams has touted as a "boost" to the economy.
Thursday Headlines: UN Hypocrisy Week Edition
The Bronx Zoo and the New York Botanical Garden preach climate action, yet still oppose better bus service. Plus other news.
Online Retailers Selling Illegal Batteries and Mopeds to City Buyers
Call it Amazon crime: The mammoth online retailer is selling illegal batteries and mopeds to city residents, despite such devices being forbidden from city streets.
Manhattan BP Wants To Raze FDR Drive South of Brooklyn Bridge
It's a great idea, but will highway-obsessed officials bite?
Wednesday’s Headlines: Head-Scratcher Edition
Three items crossed our desk yesterday that simply need to be addressed. Plus other news.
