Originally Posted by
I-Like-To-Bike
I suspect the use of cargo bikes and bakfiets, and tiny e-cars "hardly flies" even in SF, if the actual percentage of the population who own or use them is considered. I can't imagine even 1% of the population in S.F. area use any of those items on a bet, let alone as a regular means of transportation. I find it unlikely that will change in the foreseeable future.
You are correct that elsewhere their use is probably unseen, if not unknown.
I'm guessing you don't live here or you would know that ridership takes more than 130 million trips annually (not including the Metro or busses). We are an area where alternative transit is not only common but the best method of getting around. People don't drive in Manhattan much, either. And many use bikes+Bart modalities. Much like Manhattan, a car is a liabiity here - parking is scarce, expensive and tickets are frequent.
Here is a snapshot of what we learned about biking in San Francisco 2017.- Last year over 14 miles of bikeways were added or upgraded.
- August saw the highest bike ridership with 1,368,437 bikes counted.
- More than 44,000 bikes were counted on an average weekday. The peak of the morning commute occurs from 8:30-9:00 a.m. and the peak of the evening commute from 5:30-6:00 p.m.
- The installation of new FordGoBike bike share stations led to a 10 percent increase in bikes counted on nearby routes. In the second half of 2017 alone, there were over 411,000 bike share trips of a little over a mile on average.
- The counter that logged the greatest number of bikes in 2017 was the Panhandle counter with 794,124 bikes!
- The most recent US Census ridership data from 2016 estimates 3.9 percent of commute trips were regularly made by bike.