Nerd Out on Bike Data
We’re beyond excited to announce the release of the first ever report detailing public attitudes towards transportation and bicycling in Santa Clara County. To share that excitement and the research results, we’re hosting a zoom forum on September 24th, 7pm (PDT) with Dr. Kevin Fang of Sonoma State University and Shiloh Ballard, Executive Director of Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition. Are you curious whether things like the “cool” factor prevents folks from riding and does that differ amongst ages/genders/ethnicities? Do you wonder whether people are supportive of slowing down cars to make the streets more safe? And what are the biggest factors that determine a person’s transportation choice? Register here to join the conversation.
It’s a little difficult to make this sound as exciting as it really is but imagine this dilemma.
The bike movement is made up of very passionate individuals who can’t quite understand why everyone doesn’t ride a bike. These bike advocates are the people tasked with figuring out how to get other people to ride. Couple that with the fact that, typically, in the nonprofit world, we are resource constrained, meaning we can’t actually spend money collecting data to develop logical solutions. So, how have we advocates decided what programs to pursue, what types of policy changes to make, and what projects will get folks to ride? Historically, we have relied a lot on gut. What worked in getting me to ride will probably work for you, right? Maybe.
Here’s one piece of data that makes us question whether that’s true. The vast majority of people who ride are white and male. Why aren’t more women riding? Why aren’t more folks of LatinX ancestry riding? Is a confident rider who is comfortable taking a lane able to adequately understand and advocate for the concerns of a parent who wants to pedal with their child to the library?
We suspect the worldview and perspectives of those of us in the bike movement—those of us who already ride— have limitations. We have blinders.
That’s why we are so excited to finally have public opinion research that can help us see better. How does the non-riding community feel about bicycling? What holds them back? Why do they choose a car? And are there different answers to these types of questions across age, gender, ethnicity, income and more?
With funding from Santa Clara County and in partnership with the Mineta Transportation Institute at San Jose State University, we hired Change Research to poll every day people, 1000 of them in Santa Clara County.
The results are in and we now have a treasure trove of data. Click here to visit the page with links to the report and data. Some interesting nuggets of information include:
Speed is the top factor people use to determine their transportation mode.
#2 is safety from crime, which is rated much higher by women and in particular minority women.
Overall, 50% of people say they would like to drive less with the exception of Trump voters and men of LatinX descent.
If you rode a bike as a child and kept riding through the teenage years, you are much more likely to ride as an adult. This speaks to the importance of public investment in Safe Routes to Schools programs, in particular programs that continue through high schools (which most do not, at present.)
Join us and the Mineta Transportation Institute for a forum to dive deep on this data. Click here to read the report and go directly to the raw data yourself to nerd out!
