Vehicle Miles per Year USA for Bicycles

[Bob Smith]

Does anybody know what the generally accepted numbers
are for total yearly bicycle usage in the USA?

Does less than 1 billion vehicle miles sound right?

The most rigorous citation I can find on the net is:

http://www.bts.gov/omnibus/targeted/2002_national_survey_of_pedestrian_and_bicyclist_a ttitudes_and_behaviors/survey_highlights/index.html

This survey found that 91M bicycle trips were taken
from May 1 to Sep 1 2002, average length 3.9 miles.

This would imply 400M vehicle miles for the 4 summer
months. One would think this implies less than
1B vehicle miles per year.

Any other sources?

[Peter]

Bob Smith wrote:

> Does anybody know what the generally accepted numbers
> are for total yearly bicycle usage in the USA?
>
> Does less than 1 billion vehicle miles sound right?
>
> The most rigorous citation I can find on the net is:
>
> http://www.bts.gov/omnibus/targeted/2002_national_survey_of_pedestrian_and_bicyclist_a ttitudes_and_behaviors/survey_highlights/index.html
>
> This survey found that 91M bicycle trips were taken
> from May 1 to Sep 1 2002, average length 3.9 miles.
>
> This would imply 400M vehicle miles for the 4 summer
> months. One would think this implies less than
> 1B vehicle miles per year.

Sounds low, but accurate numbers are hard to come by. The CPSC study
(http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/pubs/344.pdf) from '93 found that:
"Survey results confirm the popularity of bicycle riding in
the U.S. There are an estimated 66.9 million bicyclists who reportedly
spend about 15 billion hours riding bicycles in a year." At a conservative
average speed of 8 mph that would be about 120 billion miles.

Failure Analysis Associates estimated the fatality risk of cycling at 0.26
per million hours of riding. Since there are about 800 fatalities per year
this implies a little over 3 billion hours of riding per year (24 billion
miles at 8 mph).

[Ron Wallenfang]

"Peter" > wrote in message
news:lSJFb.625074$Tr4.1617894@attbi_s03...
> Bob Smith wrote:
>
> > Does anybody know what the generally accepted numbers
> > are for total yearly bicycle usage in the USA?
> >
> > Does less than 1 billion vehicle miles sound right?
> >
> > The most rigorous citation I can find on the net is:
> >
> >
http://www.bts.gov/omnibus/targeted/2002_national_survey_of_pedestrian_and_b
icyclist_attitudes_and_behaviors/survey_highlights/index.html
> >
> > This survey found that 91M bicycle trips were taken
> > from May 1 to Sep 1 2002, average length 3.9 miles.
> >
> > This would imply 400M vehicle miles for the 4 summer
> > months. One would think this implies less than
> > 1B vehicle miles per year.
>
> Sounds low, but accurate numbers are hard to come by. The CPSC study
> (http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/pubs/344.pdf) from '93 found that:
> "Survey results confirm the popularity of bicycle riding in
> the U.S. There are an estimated 66.9 million bicyclists who reportedly
> spend about 15 billion hours riding bicycles in a year." At a
conservative
> average speed of 8 mph that would be about 120 billion miles.
>
> Failure Analysis Associates estimated the fatality risk of cycling at 0.26
> per million hours of riding. Since there are about 800 fatalities per
year
> this implies a little over 3 billion hours of riding per year (24 billion
> miles at 8 mph).
>

[Ron Wallenfang]

Under one billion sounds intuitively low. There are about 300,000,000
Americans. Say 10% do some bike riding, and average 35 miles a year each,
and you come up with a little over a billion. Or if just one of a hundred
Americans averages 350 miles a year, you reach a billion even if the other
99% do no riding at all. We're not very bike oriented in this country, but
I think we do at least that well.


"Peter" > wrote in message
news:lSJFb.625074$Tr4.1617894@attbi_s03...
> Bob Smith wrote:
>
> > Does anybody know what the generally accepted numbers
> > are for total yearly bicycle usage in the USA?
> >
> > Does less than 1 billion vehicle miles sound right?
> >
> > The most rigorous citation I can find on the net is:
> >
> >
http://www.bts.gov/omnibus/targeted/2002_national_survey_of_pedestrian_and_b
icyclist_attitudes_and_behaviors/survey_highlights/index.html
> >
> > This survey found that 91M bicycle trips were taken
> > from May 1 to Sep 1 2002, average length 3.9 miles.
> >
> > This would imply 400M vehicle miles for the 4 summer
> > months. One would think this implies less than
> > 1B vehicle miles per year.
>
> Sounds low, but accurate numbers are hard to come by. The CPSC study
> (http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/pubs/344.pdf) from '93 found that:
> "Survey results confirm the popularity of bicycle riding in
> the U.S. There are an estimated 66.9 million bicyclists who reportedly
> spend about 15 billion hours riding bicycles in a year." At a
conservative
> average speed of 8 mph that would be about 120 billion miles.
>
> Failure Analysis Associates estimated the fatality risk of cycling at 0.26
> per million hours of riding. Since there are about 800 fatalities per
year
> this implies a little over 3 billion hours of riding per year (24 billion
> miles at 8 mph).
>