Twin Cities residents are pedaling at record levels, according to the 2013 Count Report by Bike Walk Twin Cities, a program of Transit for Livable Communities. Bicycling was up 13 percent this year, according to manual counts taken in September at 43 spots in Minneapolis, St. Paul and adjacent communities. Overall bicycling is up 78 percent since the counts began in 2007.
Bike Walk Twin Cities, which collects data on nonmotorized traffic to develop a more complete picture of traffic behavior, attributed yearly increases to the expansion of trails and bike lanes. The report found that only 8 percent rode on sidewalks when trails or lanes were available vs. 24 percent in places where they were not.
Women are 27 to 32 percent of bicyclists, based on the six-year average. Not surprisingly, fewer people ride during winter, but cold-weather riding is rising faster than in summer months.
Tim Harlow
@timstrib@stribdrive
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