Get Into Gear With Bike-To-Work Day
Photo credit: Paul Wasneski – “LimeBike west of Denver”
With Bike to Work Day 2018 coming up on June 27, the Colorado Fiscal Institute decided to run the numbers to see where Colorado ranks among other states in its share of residents biking to work.
Based on CFI’s analysis of 2016 U.S. Census data, 34,240 Coloradans bike to work each day, ranking the state third in the nation for bike commuters per capita, behind only Oregon and Montana. In fact, if 2,200 more Coloradans biked to work, Colorado would overtake Montana and capture the second-place spot.
In order to become number one, the Centennial State still has a long way to go. CFI calculates that 24,700 more Coloradans would need to take up biking to work to surpass Oregon’s per capita biking share. Oregon’s biking superiority is largely driven by cycling commuters in Portland, which has the highest Ridership rating among all U.S. cities, according to the biking nonprofit PeopleForBikes.
Biking has become more popular in Colorado’s major cities in past years. In Denver, the share of bicycle commuters has more than doubled since 2000. Additionally, PeopleForBikes rated the city of Fort Collins as the top city for biking nationwide while Boulder is ranked third. The rating is mainly based on five variables: ridership, safety, network (the quality and completeness of the biking network), reach (how well the biking network in each city serves traditionally underserved populations), and acceleration (how quickly improvements are being made). Among those variables, Fort Collins excels at safety. On the other hand, Boulder still needs to improve its safety, but has a high rating for network.
As Denver, Boulder, and Fort Collins become more bike-friendly, Denver, Boulder, and Larimer Counties, have been ranked the top counties in Colorado for bike commuters per worker among the top ten counties with most number of workers.
Now that more and more Coloradans are biking to work, it’s time to overtake Montana for second place. Who knows, if enough people take it up, Colorado could even make a push for the top spot. There’s never been a better time to start than this coming Wednesday, June 27!
