17% Walk, Bike on an Average Day

On a typical day, 17 percent of Americans aged 5 or older travel by walking or biking, according to the Federal Highway Administration's National Household Travel Survey. Each of these "non-motorized trips," as the NHTS calls them, averages 1 mile in length and lasts 16 minutes. The trips are for a variety of purposes such as exercise, recreation, going to work, or visiting a store.

Some people are more likely to walk/bike places than others. Among people who report excellent health, 19 percent walk or bike on an average day compared with just 9 percent of those in poor health. People who usually exercise vigorously in a typical week are more likely to report walking or biking on an average day (22 percent) than those who report rarely or never exercising (8 percent). Not surprisingly, people who live in large cities are most likely to report walking or biking on an average day (34 percent) while those in live in rural areas are least likely (10 percent).

Percent of people aged 5 or older who walk/bike on an average day, by place of residence
Major city: 34%
Suburb: 21%
Small town: 14%
Rural area: 10%

Source: Federal Highway Administration, National Household Travel Survey, Non-Motorized Travel (PDF)

What If No One Wants to Ride a Bus Again?

Eighty-five percent of American workers usually drive to work, according to the 2018 American Community Survey. Only 5 percent usually take public transportation, a paltry figure that has barely changed in years. It's going to change now and not in a good way. Mass transit use has plummeted because of the coronavirus pandemic. It will be hard to lure any but the most desperate back onto buses and subways. According to a Gallup survey fielded during the first week of April, nine out of ten Americans are now avoiding public transportation.

Public transportation is being hammered by the coronavirus. Not only are transit drivers at heightened risk of becoming infected with Covid-19, but their passengers are too. Research is documenting the disease's spread through public transportation. According to a National Bureau of Economic Research study, public transportation—specifically the subway—appears to be the primary way coronavirus infected tens of thousands in New York City. To make this determination, economist Jeffrey E. Harris of MIT superimposed maps of subway turnstile entries with coronavirus incidence in New York City by zip code through the month of March. The results, he says, show the subway system to have been "a major disseminator—if not the primary transmission vehicle—of coronavirus infection."

This is a problem for the nation's large cities and their once vibrant economies. If mass transit is a primary vector through which communicable diseases spread widely and deeply, what is the future for cities where a large share of workers depend on public transportation to get to work?

Cars are not the answer. Not only do they create traffic jams and pollution, but private vehicles are unaffordable for many. Strict social distancing on buses and subways? Only if we want to slow city life to a crawl. Walking works only for those who live close to their employer, a luxury few can afford. But one mode of transportation checks all the boxes: inexpensive, socially distant, and healthy: the bicycle. Only 0.5 percent of American workers usually bicycle to work. Many more would do so if cities became not just bike friendly but bike ferocious, freeing streets of cars to make room for tens of thousands of  bicycle commuters. In Berlin, 13 percent of workers commute by bicycle. In Copenhagen and Amsterdam, the majority bike to work. We can do it too. Bicycles could be the route to resilience for America's large cities.

Driving Alone to Work: Top and Bottom Metros

Most Americans drive alone to work, according to the Census Bureau's American Community Survey. Nationwide, the percentage of workers aged 16 or older who commute alone in an automobile stood at 76 percent in 2017. The figure varies by metropolitan area.

The five metros with the most lone drivers
The five metropolitan areas with the largest share of lone drivers are all in the South: Dothan, AL (89 percent); Wheeling, WV (89 percent); Owensboro, KY (88 percent); Huntsville, AL (88 percent); and Florence-Muscle Shoals, AL (88 percent). One reason for these above-average figures is a lack of public transportation. The percentage of workers in these metros who use public transportation to get to work ranges from 0.0 to 0.5 percent.

The five metros with the fewest lone drivers
All five metropolitan areas with the smallest share of lone drivers are in the Northeast or West: New York (50 percent); San Francisco (57 percent); Ithaca, NY (58 percent); Boulder, CO (64 percent); and Corvallis, OR (66 percent). In New York and San Francisco, the availability and popularity of public transportation is the biggest factor reducing the percentage of workers who drive alone. In the New York metro, 31 percent of workers commute on public transportation. In San Francisco, the figure is 17 percent. Among metropolitan areas, New York and San Francisco are the ones with the highest use of public transportation.

Driving to work alone is relatively low in the other three metropolitan areas for different reasons.

• Ithaca, NY, distinguishes itself as the metropolitan area with the largest share of workers who walk to work—12.5 percent did so in 2017. Additionally, a relatively large 10 percent of Ithaca workers work at home. 
• Boulder, CO, is the metropolitan area with the largest share of workers who work at home—13.6 percent. Also, Boulder ranks second among metropolitan areas in the percentage of workers who commute to work by bicycle (4.6 percent). 
• Corvallis, OR, is the metropolitan area with the largest share of workers who bicycle to work—6.8 percent in 2017. Additionally, it has a relatively large share of workers who walk to work (7.6 percent) or who work at home (8.7 percent). 

Source: Demo Memo analysis of the 2017 American Community Survey

How Many Bicycle on an Average Day?

One in five Americans aged 15 or older participates in sports, exercise, or recreation on an average day, according to the American Time Use Survey. Only a handful of sports attract more than 1 million participants on a daily basis...

Number (and percent) of people aged 15-plus participating on an average day, 2015
Walking: 16.3 million (6.4%)
Weightlifting: 6.2 million (2.4%)
Running: 4.8 million (1.9%)
Using cardiovascular equipment: 4.8 million (1.9%)
Water sports: 3.3 million (1.3%)
Yoga: 1.6 million (0.6%)
Biking: 1.5 million (0.6%)
Golfing: 1.3 million (0.5%)
Basketball: 1.1 million (0.4%)

Those most likely to walk on an average day are people aged 75 or older (10 percent). No surprise there. More surprising are the demographics of those who bicycle on an average day. Bicycling peaks in two age groups—teens aged 15 to 19 and retirees aged 75-plus.

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2015 American Time Use Survey

Walking/Bicycling as Transportation

On an average day, only 10 percent of Americans walk or bicycle as transportation (rather than exercise)—meaning they walk or bicycle to get from point A to point B. Although urban populations have been growing in recent years, the percentage who walk or bicycle as transportation has fallen slightly over the past decade—from 11.8 percent in 2003 to 10.3 percent in 2012, according to the American Time Use Survey. Younger adults are most likely to walk or bicycle as transportation on an average day. Here are the 2012 stats by age...

Percent who walked or bicycled as transportation in past 24 hours
Aged 16 to 39: 14.0%
Aged 40 to 59: 8.4%
Aged 60-plus: 6.9%

Source: CDC, Active Transportation Surveillance—United States, 1999-2012