Portland Bike Commuting Reaches a New High, Public Transit Stays the Same

The number of Portlanders who commute by bike on regular basis topped 7% last year as the new figures from the U.S. Census Bureau were announced.

About 23, 347 Portland workers commute by bike, representing about 7.2% of all commuters. In 2010, around 6% of commuters rode their bikes. Portland is well ahead of all the other U.S. cities of similar size or larger for bike commuting percentage. Bike commuting also increased across the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro area to 2.6%.

While bicycling increased last year, public transit essentially stayed the same throughout the city. This year will most likely see an increase in public transit use with the new Orange MAX Line and Tilikum Crossing Bridge. On opening day, TriMet just announced that the Orange Line made about 40,000 trips. The opening day number ties with the MAX Green Line’s first day back in 2009.

Last Monday, for the first weekday commute, the Orange Line saw about 11,200 riders. For the first Monday commute for cyclists, Tilikum Crossing’s bike counters recorded 2,973 bikes, which was 5 less than the Hawthorne Bridge’s 2,978 bike commuters.