Nearly 70 per cent of Metro Vancouver residents live within 400 metres of a bike lane considered “comfortable for most” riders, and almost 400,000 adults ride a bicycle at least once a week during the summer.
The percentage of people who commute to work by bike, however, has declined.
These are some of the findings of TransLink’s 2024 “State of Cycling” report, which was compiled in partnership with the cycling advocacy group HUB Cycling and made public Tuesday.
Across the region, 1.9 per cent of commuter trips were made by bicycle in 2021, which the report notes is lower than the percentage seen in its first State of Cycling report back in 2019.
The report attributes the downturn in bicycle-based commuting to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We believe this will be a temporary change, reversed through further investment in ‘comfortable for most’ bikeways in urban centres and on the Major Bikeway Network, along with the growth in use of e-bikes …