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How Angelenos Get To Work
Biking to work is up a third since 2010 (Photo by Rob Rovira via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr)
A recent census and some local number crunching has revealed how Angelenos get to work, plus some interesting points about biking. Using 2013 Census data, L.A. City Bicycle Advisory Committee chair Jeff Jacobberger was able to dive in and pull some interesting points, Streetsblog L.A. reports.
First things first: these numbers only apply to commuting, so it's possible that these commuters use other means of transit for recreation and errands. It also discounts some multi-method trips—for example, someone who bikes or walks or drives to a transit station would only be counted as using public transit.
An overwhelming majority—67.1 percent—drive alone, which is not particularly surprising to anyone. Carpooling and Pubic Transit make up the next largest numbers with transit at 10.8 percent and carpooling at 9.9 percent. A lucky 3.6 percent are within walking distance of their jobs, while only 1.2 are biking. And 5.4 percent of Angelenos get to work from home, while 1.9 percent use other means (Uber, private jet, what have you, etc.)
Here are some interesting points: Biking is up. Even though it's not a large number, it's still up by a third from 2010. However, it's mostly men, with 1.8 percent of men biking to work, but only 0.6 percent of women.
Bikers tend to be more prevalent around USC and parts of South L.A. West Los Angeles and Westwood also have about the same rate of bicycle commuting as Silver Lake, Echo Park and Westlake. That's doesn't necessarily mean the neighborhoods have the same number of bikers. Jacobberger said he feels this is because there are a lot of bikers in Silver Lake and Northeast L.A. who are biking outside of work—but you don't see the same thing in West L.A.
Statewide, Jacobberger said that biking is most popular near universities in general, and wondered if better biking infrastructure would raise the numbers near UCLA and USC.
Compared to a 2011 survey, it appears the use of public transit is up 4 percent, with slightly more people working from home (4.8 percent in 2011 compared to 5.4 percent as of this survey) and biking (.86 percent compared to 1.2 percent).
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