Davis,CA bicycle ridership down 5% over ten years - Cycling Mob: Road Cycling, Mountain Biking and More

03-02-2005, 03:10 AM

Interesting figure, I wonder if this is a national trend or the people of
Davis are just getting lazy?
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Looks to me like the town wants to improve on those numbers.

Ken

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03-02-2005, 03:42 AM

"Ken Marcet" <[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]> wrote in message
news:[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]...
> Interesting figure, I wonder if this is a national trend or the
people of
> Davis are just getting lazy?
> [Only registered and activated users can see links. ]
>
prof' emeritus John Finley Scott, ex bike shop owner, ex teacher at
Davis of courses in the sociology of transportation, reckons it's
because the town is getting bigger - too far to ride.

Remember most people will only ride about two miles. If we assume
that people will ride about four times as far as they will walk,
that's consistent, so it's not some special factor about the bike.

Jeremy Parker

03-02-2005, 03:42 AM

"Ken Marcet" <[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]> wrote in message
news:[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]...
> Interesting figure, I wonder if this is a national trend or the
people of
> Davis are just getting lazy?
> [Only registered and activated users can see links. ]
>
prof' emeritus John Finley Scott, ex bike shop owner, ex teacher at
Davis of courses in the sociology of transportation, reckons it's
because the town is getting bigger - too far to ride.

Remember most people will only ride about two miles. If we assume
that people will ride about four times as far as they will walk,
that's consistent, so it's not some special factor about the bike.

Jeremy Parker

03-02-2005, 08:29 AM

On Wed, 2 Mar 2005 06:10:56 -0500, "Ken Marcet" <[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]>
wrote:

>Interesting figure, I wonder if this is a national trend or the people of
>Davis are just getting lazy?
>[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]
>
>Looks to me like the town wants to improve on those numbers.
>
>Ken

It'd be interesting to look at the population changes in Davis over
the last fifteen years, and the actual numbers rather than
percentages. Maybe the 22% to 17% drop represents no change in the
number of bicyclists or bicycle trips? Just an increase of non-bike
travel?

03-02-2005, 08:29 AM

On Wed, 2 Mar 2005 06:10:56 -0500, "Ken Marcet" <[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]>
wrote:

>Interesting figure, I wonder if this is a national trend or the people of
>Davis are just getting lazy?
>[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]
>
>Looks to me like the town wants to improve on those numbers.
>
>Ken

It'd be interesting to look at the population changes in Davis over
the last fifteen years, and the actual numbers rather than
percentages. Maybe the 22% to 17% drop represents no change in the
number of bicyclists or bicycle trips? Just an increase of non-bike
travel?

03-02-2005, 08:57 AM

In article <[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]>,
"Ken Marcet" <[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]> wrote:

> Interesting figure, I wonder if this is a national trend or the people of
> Davis are just getting lazy?
> [Only registered and activated users can see links. ]
>
> Looks to me like the town wants to improve on those numbers.

I'd bet it is some combination of increased sprawl, higher traffic
density on bike route streets, increased number of monster vehicles
driven by increasing number of more distracted drivers.

Here (in the Fox Valley region of Chicagoland) suburban sprawl has
snipped off oh, say, about 100 miles of semi-rural road bike loops.
The roads are still there, but you gotta share them with swerving
Navigators and 65 mile an hour dump trucks. I've been brushed by more
than one mirror -- enuf! -- no more road rides on my favorite loops for
me!

If you ride a bike on any of the main transport streets (vs.
neighborhood streets) here, your probability of being struck by an
inattentive driver is on the order of 1/[couple of months]. Sadly, the
nature of transportation routing here means that the dedicated rider is
pushed onto these main routes for many trips, _especially_ in the
winter, when the fox river trail can be covered w/ snow/ice.

I'd bet good money that Davis' ridership is down because of hostile
cycling environmental developments.

--
<blink>

03-02-2005, 08:57 AM

In article <[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]>,
"Ken Marcet" <[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]> wrote:

> Interesting figure, I wonder if this is a national trend or the people of
> Davis are just getting lazy?
> [Only registered and activated users can see links. ]
>
> Looks to me like the town wants to improve on those numbers.

I'd bet it is some combination of increased sprawl, higher traffic
density on bike route streets, increased number of monster vehicles
driven by increasing number of more distracted drivers.

Here (in the Fox Valley region of Chicagoland) suburban sprawl has
snipped off oh, say, about 100 miles of semi-rural road bike loops.
The roads are still there, but you gotta share them with swerving
Navigators and 65 mile an hour dump trucks. I've been brushed by more
than one mirror -- enuf! -- no more road rides on my favorite loops for
me!

If you ride a bike on any of the main transport streets (vs.
neighborhood streets) here, your probability of being struck by an
inattentive driver is on the order of 1/[couple of months]. Sadly, the
nature of transportation routing here means that the dedicated rider is
pushed onto these main routes for many trips, _especially_ in the
winter, when the fox river trail can be covered w/ snow/ice.

I'd bet good money that Davis' ridership is down because of hostile
cycling environmental developments.

--
<blink>

03-02-2005, 10:36 AM

This is taken from the cited article: "According to 1990 census
information, 22 percent of all trips made in the city were done via a
bicycle. Ten years later, that number dropped to 17 percent." That is a
drop of 5 PERCENTAGE POINTS, but actually a 23% reduction. Since these
figures come from census data, rather than actual traffic counts, I suspect
the figures may have a large subjective content. You must also consider
that Davis is a university town--bicycle ridership among students/faculty is
undoubtedly much higher than in the general population. What has happened
to the permanent population vs. student population in that decade?

03-02-2005, 10:36 AM

This is taken from the cited article: "According to 1990 census
information, 22 percent of all trips made in the city were done via a
bicycle. Ten years later, that number dropped to 17 percent." That is a
drop of 5 PERCENTAGE POINTS, but actually a 23% reduction. Since these
figures come from census data, rather than actual traffic counts, I suspect
the figures may have a large subjective content. You must also consider
that Davis is a university town--bicycle ridership among students/faculty is
undoubtedly much higher than in the general population. What has happened
to the permanent population vs. student population in that decade?

03-02-2005, 11:05 AM

max wrote:

> I'd bet it is some combination of increased sprawl, higher traffic
> density on bike route streets, increased number of monster vehicles
> driven by increasing number of more distracted drivers.

> I'd bet good money that Davis' ridership is down because of hostile
> cycling environmental developments.

Increased non-university population and sprawl may indeed be the issue. But I
don't think traffic density or monster trucks have anything to do with it.
Roads there are very wide and bike friendly, so the amount and nature of the
traffic hardly makes a difference. Plus, Davis is riddled with bike paths.
Many riders wouldn't spend much time on the roads anyway.

Even if the roads are more hostile, or perceived that way, the ridership
decrease is probably due to a general trend. Few students have ridden since
childhood and even then not all of them. They're not about to start while going
to college. We have the same problem here at VA Tech. Besides, only losers
don't have cars, right? ;-)

Matt O.