Pennsylvania and Philly Start Strong in National Bike Challenge

The first month of the I Bike PHL Challenge is in the books. We are not surprised to see our region making a strong showing on the national biking stage.

Here, for you stat geeks, are some factoids about how we biked around in May*:

• We took 13,155 trips by bike in May.
• We rode 93,067 miles.
• 592 riders logged at least one trip (874 signed up for the Challenge).

How we did locally and nationally:

• Frank Martin was our top local rider, riding 1,974 miles in May. This placed him as the 6th rider nationally!
• The Philly Cycling Friends was our top local team, racking up 8,897 points, good for 26th nationally!
• Temple University destroyed the field as top workplace, more than doubling up on 2nd UPenn. Temple was the 17th employer nationally (just ahead of Facebook)!
• Pennsylvania as a whole was the 7th state, but the rankings are based on points per 1,000 population. All 6 states ahead of us are much smaller. Just sayin'.
• New Jersey as a state was 41st.

Portland OR, Reports Zero Bicycle Fatalities in 2008

Bike Back the Night-20.jpg
Originally uploaded by BikePortland.org

BikePortland.org reported zero (0) bicycle fatalities in Portland in 2008. Could it be that paying attention to the needs of bicyclists and the presence of more bicyclists makes it safer for bicyclists?

Maybe, there have been several years since 2000 where Portland has hit the zero mark. But its not perfect in 2007 Portland recorded six traffic fatalities. Still a comparison of bridge counts suggest and census figures suggest that the city which is less than half the size of Philadelphia has about 4 times the bicycle traffic.

Portland DOT Traffic Safety Guru Grag Raiseman was quoted on BikePortland.org - “We are definitely seeing positive crash trends in Portland. All modes have seen reductions in crashes and fatalities over the past decade. 2008 was a potentially record-breaking year for having the lowest number of traffic fatalities on record in Portland"

Let's compare that to New Jersey doubling bicycling fatalities in 2008. Although it appears that a bicycle education campaign will be a priority for the Dept of Traffic Safety in 2009, a more holistic approach to reducing bicycle deaths by improving road conditions and strengthening aggressive driver laws does not appear to be on the horizon.

Portland Reaches for the Tipping Point

New US Census and Portland DOT bicycle transportation data indicates that bicycling in "America's Most Livable City"continues to skyrocket.

Portland DOT counts bikes every year, like Philadelphia's Schuylkill River, Portland's Willamette River bridges provide ideal choke points to measure trends in bicycle traffic.

• 2007 bike counts indicate than 14,500 bicycles cross those bridges every day that 18% of the total traffic and up 21% from 2006. The Hawthorne Bridge may have the heaviest bicycle traffic in the country.
• The 2006 American Community Survey reports that 4.4% of the trips to work are by bicycle, about 4 times the rate of Philadelphia (1.2%) and 9 times the national average (0.5%).
  
• Bicycle traffic on the bridges has increased more that 400% since 1991.
  
• Reported Bicycle-Car Crashes remained steady during that same time period reinforcing the Safety in Numbers study.
  
• Motor vehicle counts area about the same as 1991 but vehicle miles traveled has declined.

We don't have daily counts but the 2006 rush hour counts of the Schuylkill River Bridges run at a rate of just under 400 bikes per hour, which probably adds up to 3000 to 4000 bikes per day. Portland is less than 1/3 the size of Philadelphia. The full report can be downloaded as a PDF file.

Two blogs provide oodles on info on this trend:

• BikePortland.org website, which is a great news source for bicycling in Portland.
  

• NYC's Streetsblog which includes a 30 minute video on bicycling in Portland check out the video screenshot of the Hawthorne Bridge below.