More Americans are biking or walking to work these days, in part because public-sector investment is improving the infrastructure they need to get there safely. Further public investments in bike paths and bike lanes are likely to offer a big social payoff.
Federal spending on bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure has more than doubled since 2006 but amounted to less than $4 a person in 2010. This chart, a snippet of a larger infographic by Kory Northrop, a graduate student at the University of Oregon, that illustrates differences across states and highlights the top 10 major American cities for bike commuting, draws on data from the American Community Survey for 2009.
Portland, Ore., tops the list, with 5.8 percent of workers riding to their jobs on a regular basis. Snowy Minneapolis comes in second, at 3.9 percent, and Seattle third, at 3 percent. San Francisco, despite its hills, is nearly tied with Seattle. Smaller cities are not included in this ranking, but some, like Boulder, Colo., and Eugene, Ore., have higher bike-commuting rates than Portland.
At last count, New York City was still below 1 percent, but that may be changing, with the recent large expansion of bike paths there.
see the rest of the story at: http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/04/the-bicycle-dividend/
