Near the end of last month, Grand Rapids hosted a successful bike summit according to Pedal GR.
With 60 bicycles crowding the Bike Valet Parking area and around 200 attendees inside to learn how to make Grand Rapids into a Bicycle Friendly Community, I would call the first ever Grand Rapids Bike Summit a big success! In the crowd there were young people, old people, roadies, mountain bikers, casual bicycle riders, hardcore cyclists, fixed gear riders, government officials, politicians, and many others.
Their main keynote speaker was Bill Nesper from the League of American Bicyclists. Nesper leads their Bicycle Friendly America program and spoke about how Grand Rapids can achieve Bike Friendly Community status.
Last year Kathyrn Underwood of the Detroit Planning Commission suggested Detroit host a bike summit. That is certainly an idea worth considering. Grand Rapids has given us a model to follow.
Ever wonder how many people are biking or walking to work in Metro Detroit? How do we compare with the bike friendly cities of Chicago and Portland?
Fortunately the U.S. Census publishes statistics on how people get to work. The below numbers are from 2007, which is before gasoline hit $4 a gallon and encouraged increased bike commuting. We look forward to seeing the 2008 numbers.
Note that the Metro Detroit error margins are generally +/- 0.1%. For cities, the error margins are much larger which makes comparing these numbers somewhat precarious.
One conclusion that can be drawn is women don’t bike to work as frequently as men, but especially in some areas such as Wayne County, Southfield, and Grand Rapids. Even in more bike friendly cities like Ann Arbor, Chicago, and Portland, women workers are much less likely to bike to work. There is no corresponding gender difference among those walking to work in many of these regions (the City of Detroit is an exception). In Metro Detroit, women walk to work more often than men (1.6% vs. 1.4%).
Another conclusion: Detroit has much room for improvement compared to places like Ann Arbor, Chicago, and Portland.
City/Region
Total Workers
(age 16 & over)
Walk
to work
Bike to work
Overall
Male
Female
Michigan
4,400,918
2.3%
0.4%
0.5%
0.2%
Metro Detroit
1,925,690
1.5%
0.2%
0.3%
0.1%
Wayne County
758,034
1.9%
0.3%
0.5%
0.0%
Oakland County
577,367
1.6%
0.2%
0.3%
0.2%
Macomb County
383,058
0.9%
0.1%
0.1%
0.1%
Genesee County
170,312
1.0%
0.1%
0.2%
0.0%
Detroit
249,970
2.7%
0.3%
0.7%
0.0%
Southfield
33,936
2.2%
0.4%
0.7%
0.0%
Troy
42,211
0.5%
0.3%
0.2%
0.3%
Ann Arbor
55,336
13.8%
2.6%
3.4%
1.8%
Lansing
52,690
2.5%
0.4%
0.5%
0.3%
Grand Rapids
90,481
3.6%
1.1%
2.0%
0.1%
Traverse City region
66,557
2.8%
0.5%
0.7%
0.4%
Flint
31,579
0.8%
0.4%
0.6%
0.2%
Chicago, IL
1,230,933
5.4%
1.1%
1.4%
0.7%
Portland, OR
280,933
4.4%
3.9%
4.9%
2.8%
One question we have is how does the Census Bureau count workers that use bus bike racks? Are they counted as public transit commuters, as bicyclists or both?
Near the end of last month, Grand Rapids hosted a successful bike summit according to Pedal GR.