The Census Bureau just released 2005 data indicating that the city of Portland “ranks first in the nation for biking to work.” The bureau director actually came to Portland to make the announcement. “It’s like a Swiss city, clean, with trains and bikes everywhere,” he gushed.
Cyclists crossing the Willamette River. When I did this in the 1970s, it seemed like I was one of a mere handful of Portlanders who biked to work year round.
Flickr photo by Bike Portland.
Actually, the numbers show that only 3.5 percent of Portland workers bike to work, which hardly suggests they are “everywhere.” In fact, only in downtown and the inner city do you see a lot of cyclists. Downtown has about a third of the jobs in the city of Portland, but the Portland Business Alliance’s census of downtown employers indicates that well over half of all bike commuters work downtown.
