D.C.'s Bike Boom Has Staying Power

More biking, less transit, and less driving alone are the headlining trends from the most recent Regional Travel Survey for the D.C. metropolitan area.

1 minute read

March 12, 2021, 8:00 AM PST

By James Brasuell @CasualBrasuell


Bicyclists White House

Elvert Barnes / flickr

"Since 2007, the share of people in the Washington region who ride bikes has gone up, while driving and riding transit have dropped, according to a gigantic once-per-decade report," reports George Kevin Jordan.

The National Capital Regional Transportation Planning Board (TPB), the metropolitan planning organization (MPO) for metropolitan Washington, D.C., released its latest Regional Travel Survey—a kind of Census of transportation trends conducted every ten years.

"Planners use [the Regional Travel Survey] to create traffic models, ridership estimates, and other data that goes into plans and forecasts all over the region," according to Jordan.

The latest survey was conducted in 2017 but has only just become public. The article includes a lot more specific detail on the findings of the survey. One interesting finding to note from this era before the pandemic: residents of the metropolitan area were taking fewer trips, generally staying home more, long before the stay-at-home orders of the pandemic.

Friday, March 5, 2021 in Greater Greater Washington

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I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching. Mary G., Urban Planner

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching.

Mary G., Urban Planner

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