Credit: Via Dave Knows

A while ago, I directed Blogtownies to take the Bicycle Transportation Alliance’s big survey of cyclists. Well, BTA communications coordinator Margaux Mennesson just released the results. The questions posed to roughly 2,000 bike riders (and a handful of non cyclists) in Oregon and SW Washington reveal some interesting stats.

But it’s obvious that the survey does not accurately represent most Portland cyclists: a whopping one-third of people who took the survey reported incomes of over $90,000. Ninety percent had a 4-year college degree. Unless there’s a lot of Plaid Pantry workers hilariously screwing with the BTA survey, the participant demographics mean we now mostly know more about how rich people bike in Oregon.

From the survey results:

• 85 percent of local cyclists also own cars.
• Portland isn’t the least car-centric city in the state. That honor goes to Eugene, where 20 percent of survey participants reported not owning a car. Thirteen percent of Portlanders surveyed did not own a car.
• Eugene survey participants also beat Portland on how frequently they ride. Eugene participants reported making 55 percent of trips by bike, Bend/Sisters reported 46 and Portland came in third at 43 percent.
• Why does Eugene rank higher? Cuz cyclists feel the roads there are safer and more accessible.
• Eleven percent of BTA memebers quit the organization because they disagreed with a policy, six percent because they were disappointed overall. But 41 percent of former members said they did not renew for financial reasons.
• BTA membership is predominantly “affluent intermediate and advanced cyclists” age 35 and up. (as seen in $90,000 disclaimer above…)

Download the survey results with its plethora of nerdy graphs here.

You know how else Eugene kicks Portland’s ass at biking? They have a genuine bike hearse. How are Portlanders supposed to die green eco-sustainable deaths without a fleet of bike hearses?!

bike_hearse500.jpg

Sarah Shay Mirk reported on transportation, sex and gender issues, and politics at the Mercury from 2008-2013. They have gone on to make many things, including countless comics and several books.

13 replies on “Eugene Beats Portland on Bike Friendliness”

  3. GLV – I think that discrepancy comes from the 4 percent of survey respondents who identified as “non-cyclists.” There’s people out there who don’t bike but also don’t drive. That’s what they make buses and rollerblades for.

  4. Eugene is a tiny town. It has no freeways running through it, you can toss a stone across the river. It’s more of a big park than a city, so don’t sweat it Portlanders, it’s only statistics.

  5. As someone who lived in Eugene for 9 years and has now lived in Portland longer there should be no competition between the who is most bike friendly. Eugene is much smaller, and the central city is mostly flat. Those two reasons alone will make it more bike friendly than Portland. People jump on these statistics and then promote their own agenda when no matter how you look at it. 2000 people is a very small (and not very representative as you mentioned above) sample of the riders contained in both cities. And $90k doesn’t make you rich, even if you think so.

  6. Perhaps I missed it, but could you please post the response rate to the survey? You know, to ascertain the statistical viablity and all that…

  12. I moved from PDX to Eugene in June to go to school. I really prefer biking in Portland. Sure Portland is a bigger city and has more hills, but I don’t feel like the cars in Eugene are very considerate of cyclists / bike lanes. Also, there’s lots more people riding the wrong way in the bike lanes, on the sidewalks, and less helmet wearing / lights at night.

    An interesting thing about Eugene is that it is rarely faster to get around town by car.

    Of course, both cities are awesome for biking by national standards.

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