If just 1,200 more Coloradans bike to work each day, Colorado would become the No. 2 bicycle commuting state in the U.S.
With Bike to Work Day on Wednesday, the Colorado Fiscal Institute decided to run the numbers to see where Colorado ranks among other states in share of residents biking to work.
In our state, 35,000 people bike to work each day, ranking the state third in the nation on bike commuters per capita behind Oregon and Montana, according to CFI’s analysis of 2013 U.S. Census data. Coloradans are just barely behind Montana on a per-capita biking basis. If 1,200 more Coloradans would bike to work, Colorado would overtake Montana and capture the second place spot.
To put that challenge in other terms, since Colorado has more than 2.5 million workers, if only one of every 2,000 workers decided to take up biking to work, Colorado would surpass Montana.
But we have a long way to go to be ranked No. 1. CFI calculates that 19,000 more Coloradans would need to take up biking to work in order to surpass Oregon’s per capita biking share. Oregon’s biking superiority is largely driven by cycling commuters in Portland, which has the highest share of bicycle commuters of any U.S. city.
Biking in Colorado’s largest city has been increasing in past years as well. In the city of Denver, the share of bicycle commuters has more than doubled since 2000. While Colorado itself is No. 3, Denver ranks 13th in share of biking commuters out of the 70 largest cities in the U.S.
It’s time we overtake Montana in biking. Will you be one of the 1,200?
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