Have you ever considered using your bike to commute to work? The number of cyclists who commute to work in Utah had increased dramatically in the last couple of years; begging you to reconsider whether you should pull out the bike.
The increase in the number of bike users for commuting to workplace has raised nearly 65 percent since 2005. Overall however, bikers are sill only considered one percentage of workers, it is still less than one percent. The Salt Lake Tribune reported that Utah ranks ninth nationally in the percentage of its commuters who pedal to work. This is an increase from 0.6 percent in 2005 to 0.99 in 2012 as reflected in a new study conducted by the League of American Bicyclists using U.S. Census Bureau data.
Oregon tops the list for the number of bicycle commuters among the states at 2.5 percent while Arkansas was reported to be the lowest at 0.08 percent.
In Utah, Provo clinched the top 25 among metro areas with at least 60,000 people. Provo also ranks 24th nationally for people who commute to work with four percent. Representative Johnny Anderson, House chairman of the Legislature’s Interim Transportation Committee was not surprised by Provo’s ranking. The secret behind the great number of bike users in Provo lies in the availability of great bicycle trail and road systems for people who commute. These trail systems provided the best motivation for bikers.
Davis, California was recognized as the city with the highest percentage of bicycle commuters in the nation with 19.1 percent. It was disclosed that the percentage of workers commuting by bike stands at 3.5 percent in Salt Lake City and 0.19 percent in West Valley City.
Rep. Johnny Anderson, an avid cyclist and sponsor of many bicycling-related bills provided his personal reasons for the bike’s growing popularity in Utah. The reasons include health concerns; desire to help improve air quality and availability of bike trails and lanes that promote safety.
Christensen & Hymas lawyers, who are avid cyclists themselves, are happy with this recent development in bike usage. For this reasons, this law firm continues to advocate safety for bikers. We believe that biking brings out the best in people. We hope this percentage of bike users who commute to work will continue to increase for Mother Nature’s sake. We remind every biker to follow all traffic rules by heart and share the road.
Image of Y Mountain courtesy of Flickr.