Thursday, June 4, 2009

An 11% Increase in Recreational Cycling

An interesting fact from the National Sporting Goods Association and Outdoor Foundation:

More Americans rode bicycles
for recreation and transportation in 2008 than in any year since the turn of this century, according to the National Sporting Goods Association and the Outdoor Foundation. According to the NSGA, 44.7 million people age 7 and older rode a bike more than 6 times last year, up from 40.1 million in 2007 and 35.6 million in 2006. The 11% increase is attributed to factors such as record high gas prices last summer, a growing green movement and increased funding for bicycle infrastructure. Overall, bike riding placed 6th in the NSGA's participation list, behind exercise walking, swimming, exercising with equipment, bowling and camping, in that order.


A national increase of 11% is pretty good, especially considering the city of Copenhagen aims annually for a 10% mode share increase amongst commuters city wide. Still, 6 times a year is hardly a habit, and lumping the commuting lady that rides 300 times a year in the same category with the commuting fellow riding 6 times a year seems a little rash.


I also love that bowling as excercise beat out bicycling. I think that means we still have a lot of work to do.

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