Tidbit Tuesday | Bicycle Commuters in Philadelphia are More Female than in Other Major US Cities

Every Tuesday, the Mayor’s Office of Transportation & Utilities (MOTU) posts a map or graphic that tells a story about transportation or utilities in the City of Brotherly Love.

This week we decided to comb through some 2012 American Community Survey data and see what the gender split is for those who commute to work by bicycle in America’s top 10 most populous cities.

 

Just as an FYI, the gender split of all workers who are residents of the below cities is 48%-56% male and 44%-52% female.  Therefore, this may account for some the variation, but certainly not all.

In any case, we found that Philadelphia has the highest percent of bicycle commuters that are women across the largest cities in the US!  Nationally, the percentage of bicycle commuters who are women sits at 27% (according to the 2012 American Community Survey).   It is important to note that the American Community Survey only allows those surveyed to select one transportation (even if they use multiple modes) and only asks about commute mode.  Overall, one’s commute is only a portion of the overall trips made over the course of the day.  Therefore, there may be a different percentage of overall Philadelphia bicyclists that are women than the above bicycle commuter numbers.  In fact, the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia has done a lot of research and work around women and biking, we encourage you to check out their site and their recent write up over at Philly.com.