Covid-19 Triggers Cycling Explosion In The US

With individuals and families looking to get outdoors safely, essential workers finding alternative ways to travel besides public transit, and spring weather inching further north every week, bikes are booming during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

If there’s a bright spot in the events of the past few months, one is certainly the renewed appreciation and interest to the joy and utility of the humble bicycle. The full medical, social, and economic ramifications of a nearly global lockdown are months, even years away from being fully realized, but bikes have stepped up as a way for everyone to get through challenging times. From families who need to get the kids out of the house, athletes looking for a new, socially-distant way to exercise, and even a rise in the bike commuting, things have never been better for bike shops and cycling organizations. 

A trip to your local bike shop would probably be enough of a signal that things are going 

A company called EcoCounter tracks cycling data across the country and has spotted certain regions where cycling has increased in a big, big way. The southwest tracks cycling up by 100% from mid-April to May 4. Bike traffic in Arlington, Virginia, is up 50%.

Nationwide, weekends have seen the biggest spike, a sign that much of the new cycling interest is focused more on recreational excursions. But there’s also signals from BikeShare, a bicycle sharing company in New York, that healthcare workers are turning to bikes to avoid crowded and limited public options like buses and trains. 

Cities are quickly closing down lanes and even entire streets to accommodate and encourage the trend. New York has already shut down 40 miles of its roads to cars to allow for more cycling traffic, and has pledged to raise that mileage to 100 by the end of the summer. Boston, Minneapolis, San Francisco, Oakland, and Seattle have all made similar commitments over the past few weeks as well. Communities that want to see cycling built into infrastructure may be able to implement similar measures and study how it impacts traffic and citizen behavior in the longer term, better spending valuable infrastructure funds. 

Do you think the spike in cycling interest will last? Let us know with an email, and make sure to let us know if your town has made any effort to encourage more of its residents to go by bike!