How many Americans ride a bike? How often do they ride? Why do they ride?

Accurate information on bicycling participation is essential in evaluating our overall work and the effectiveness of our programs and key projects. Existing research on bicycling participation has been been limited to either recreational riding or transportation riding of certain types. This participation research, commissioned by PeopleForBikes and conducted by Corona Insights, is designed to address these limitations by standardizing how participation is bicycling of any kind, by any type of rider, is measured and tracked over time.

Topline results:

• Thirty-four percent of Americans ages 3+ rode a bicycle at least one day in the past year.
• Of those who rode a bicycle, 59% rode twice per month or less often.
• Youth were more likely than adults to ride a bike to travel to social/recreation/leisure activities.Youth were also more likely than adults to bike to get to work/school.
• One-third (33%) of outdoor bicyclists also rode a bicycle inside; this includes a stationary bike, or riding a bicycle on a trainer / rollers.
• 71% of households with children owned at least one kids bike, and most of those were operational.
• Eleven percent of all bike riders only rode for transportation, up significantly from 8% in 2020 and 9% in 2018.