Mode shares for US metro areas

[Cirrus]

The Transport Politic, a truly excellent transportation blog that everyone should be reading, has a great post up today dissecting mode share information from the 2009 American Community Survey.

I've copied some of their information from the 30 largest MSAs into a spreadsheet, reproduced below in a couple of forms.

Of course, since it is MSA data it excludes San Jose from San Francisco, Baltimore from Washington, etc. C'est la vie.

Metro areas ranked by percentage of workers driving alone:

Metro Area (MSA)	Driving Alone
New York		50.39
San Francisco		61.86
Washington		66.1
Boston			68.52
Seattle			69.54
Chicago			70.92
Portland		71.63
Los Angeles		73.62
Philadelphia		73.65
Riverside		74.53
Denver			75.6
Sacramento		75.78
San Diego		75.8
Phoenix			76.17
Baltimore		76.76
Pittsburgh		77.05
Atlanta			77.21
Miami			77.71
Minneapolis		78.12
Houston			78.78
San Antonio		79.35
Las Vegas		79.47
Orlando			80.75
Tampa			80.84
Cincinnati		81.11
Dallas			81.24
Cleveland		81.5
St. Louis		82.25
Kansas City		82.47
Detroit			84.02

Metro areas by transit mode share:

Metro Area (MSA)	Transit
New York		30.5
San Francisco		14.59
Washington		14.15
Boston			12.24
Chicago			11.48
Philadelphia		9.28
Seattle			8.69
Baltimore		6.21
Los Angeles		6.2
Portland		6.08
Pittsburgh		5.77
Minneapolis		4.67
Denver			4.64
Cleveland		3.79
Atlanta			3.66
Miami			3.51
Las Vegas		3.18
San Diego		3.08
Sacramento		2.69
St. Louis		2.55
Cincinnati		2.42
San Antonio		2.32
Phoenix			2.26
Houston			2.24
Orlando			1.85
Riverside		1.78
Detroit			1.62	
Dallas			1.53
Tampa			1.4
Kansas City		1.23

Metro areas by carpooling

Metro Area (MSA)	Carpooling
Riverside		15.56
Houston			12.06
Phoenix			11.98
Sacramento		11.55
San Antonio		11.4
Seattle			11.05
Los Angeles		10.8
Washington		10.61
Atlanta			10.55
Miami			10.43
Las Vegas		10.33
Dallas			10.32
San Francisco		10.19
Portland		9.89
San Diego		9.87
Cincinnati		9.64
Denver			9.46
Pittsburgh		9.37
Baltimore		9.16
Orlando			9.03
Tampa			8.98
St. Louis		8.95
Kansas City		8.88
Minneapolis		8.8
Chicago			8.79
Detroit			8.56
Cleveland		8.16
Boston			8.03
Philadelphia		7.92
New York		7.02

Metro areas by biking

Metro Area (MSA)	Biking
Portland		2.13
Sacramento		1.62
San Francisco		1.54
Boston			1.03
Seattle			0.92
Phoenix			0.91
Los Angeles		0.86
Minneapolis		0.86
Philadelphia		0.73
Denver			0.72
Tampa			0.7
San Diego		0.62
Miami			0.61
Washington		0.57
Chicago			0.57
Orlando			0.45
New York		0.4
Las Vegas		0.34
Baltimore		0.33
Detroit			0.32
St. Louis		0.3
Houston			0.27
Riverside		0.27
Pittsburgh		0.24
Cleveland		0.22
Kansas City		0.21
Atlanta			0.2
Cincinnati		0.18
San Antonio		0.18
Dallas			0.13

Metro areas by walking

Metro Area (MSA)	Walking
New York		6.28
Boston			5.12
San Francisco		4.4
Philadelphia		3.75
Pittsburgh		3.71
Seattle			3.57
Washington		3.21
Portland		3.17
Chicago			3.17
Baltimore		2.85
San Diego		2.8
Los Angeles		2.63
Minneapolis		2.26
Cleveland		2.25
Cincinnati		2.16
Denver			2.15
Riverside		2.03
San Antonio		2.02
Sacramento		1.84
Phoenix			1.8
Las Vegas		1.78
Miami			1.77
Detroit			1.65
St. Louis		1.64
Houston			1.55
Kansas City		1.48
Tampa			1.43
Atlanta			1.41
Dallas			1.4
Orlando			0.97

And just for giggles:

Metro areas by number of total workers

Metro Area (MSA)	Total Workers
New York		8765356
Los Angeles		5806655
Chicago			4411503
Dallas			3042460
Washington		2861983
Philadelphia		2769040
Houston			2708967
Atlanta			2520867
Miami			2446844
Boston			2316315
San Francisco		2083775
Phoenix			1893856
Detroit			1786498
Seattle			1702972
Minneapolis		1688996
Riverside		1627806
San Diego		1406411
St. Louis		1328691
Baltimore		1322360
Denver			1277368
Tampa			1191969
Pittsburgh		1090107
Portland		1050429
Cincinnati		1016920
Kansas City		1003553
Orlando			938873
Cleveland		935744
San Antonio		919348
Sacramento		916946
Las Vegas		874449

[Cirrus]

The carpooling info is the most interesting to me. Note that the top three are all heavily suburban, transit-light cities.

[Steely Dan]

^ and the bottom 3 are all heavily urban, transit-heavy cities.

[Doady]

It is interesting that Seattle is the only metro area that in the top 10 in every single category (not driving alone, carpooling, transit, walking and biking).

[Steely Dan]

also interesting to me is the number of chicago cyclists. the percenage is not impressive at all, but because of chicago's large size, i'm in the company of quite a few other people.

4,411,503 x 0.0057 = 25,146 bike commuters in chicagoland. cool.

[jaxg8r1]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

also interesting to me is the number of chicago cyclists. the percenage is not impressive at all, but because of chicago's large size, i'm in the company of quite a few other people.

4,411,503 x 0.0057 = 25,146 bike commuters in chicagoland. cool.

22374 in Portland...hopefully both cities can double in the coming years (at least).

PS, if anyone is interested the City of Portland does bicycle traffic counts (amongst other things) and compiles a yearly report.
http://www.portlandonline.com/shared....cfm?id=217489

Seems there were almost 17000 counted bicycles crossing bridges daily in Portland (about 13% of total traffic). Up 15% from a year earlier and up 178% from 2000.

[northbay]

just to be clear, the above data is for commutes only, not all trips.

thanks for posting this info cirrus. the transport politic has always been one of my favorite transportation blogs.

[Buckeye Native 001]

Might not make much of a difference at all, but I know Riverside and Phoenix have carpool lanes (not sure about Houston?). Wonder how much that helps as an incentive for carpooling?

I've lived in/near both cities and while traffic was backed up as far as the eye could see, they always seemed to be zipping along in the car pool lanes with hardly any congestion.

[novawolverine]

I think carpool lanes are a major incentive to carpool in the DC area. Some HOV lanes are becoming HOT lanes which carpoolers are pretty bummed about.

[AusHou]

Originally Posted by Buckeye Native 001

Might not make much of a difference at all, but I know Riverside and Phoenix have carpool lanes (not sure about Houston?). Wonder how much that helps as an incentive for carpooling?

I've lived in/near both cities and while traffic was backed up as far as the eye could see, they always seemed to be zipping along in the car pool lanes with hardly any congestion.

Yes, Houston has carpool lanes.

[LMich]

The "drive alone" number for Metro Detroit gives me the sad. But, that's what you happen when you literally have two mass transit systems (one for the city and the other for the suburbs) in a region as large as Metro Detroit; you end up with TWO underfunded, inefficient systems.

[glowrock]

Originally Posted by Buckeye Native 001

Might not make much of a difference at all, but I know Riverside and Phoenix have carpool lanes (not sure about Houston?). Wonder how much that helps as an incentive for carpooling?

I've lived in/near both cities and while traffic was backed up as far as the eye could see, they always seemed to be zipping along in the car pool lanes with hardly any congestion.

Yes, Houston has LOTS of carpool lanes...

Aaron (Glowrock)

[Cirrus]

I would assume all large cities have carpool lanes. Is this not the case?

[Jasonhouse]

The entire Tampa metro has none whatsoever.

[LMich]

I don't think it is. Michigan didn't have any HOV lanes until 2008 when a stretch of Michigan Avenue in Detroit was assigned one. I think Illinois just recently got some, but I'm not even sure of that.

[mhays]

Carpool lanes on freeways (and sometimes bus-only lanes) are a big part of transit ridership too. Particularly for a city like Seattle where buses still serve as the main transit mode for long commutes, vs. other cities were they're mostly short-hop travel.

[Rail Claimore]

Originally Posted by Cirrus

I would assume all large cities have carpool lanes. Is this not the case?

Chicago has absolutely none, and may not have them for the foreseeable future. A study (by CATS, I believe) from years ago on their feasibility ruled that they would take away riders who already commute by transit.

[novawolverine]

I'd be interested in browsing that study, but depending on the circumstances, that may or may not be unique to that particular region, I don't think HOV lanes take away from transit users. I think if the commuter rail covers the metro pretty well, than perhaps it might, but if there are places that are further flung that don't have transit access, there could be a positive affect from having HOV lanes it seems. Buses get to use HOV lanes as well. I think for a decentralized metro, it might not be as successful.

[Don B.]

Phoenix has carpool lanes all over the place, and that may explain why there are so many carpoolers here. Both major interstate freeways in Phoenix (I-17 and I-10) have carpool lanes all of the way across the metro area, from one end to the other, and so does SR 51 and Loop 202 from downtown to the eastern suburbs. Loop 101 on the east side also has carpool lanes across the entire eastern side of the metro area.

I was surprised to see Phoenix rank so highly (6th in the nation) in the percentage of bicycle commuters. There's many more recreational bicycle users, but fewer people actually use their bikes to commute to work.

--don

[Cirrus]

their feasibility ruled that they would take away riders who already commute by transit.

Actually it's the other way around. I see a lot of data on that as part of my day job, and typically carpooling share in a given corridor goes way down when a new transit line opens nearby. Carpoolers are often the first to switch to transit when quality transit becomes available, because transit really is better than carpooling in a number of ways.

But I can see how that fear might exist.

Anyway, I'm pretty surprised to hear that carpools lanes are so rare. Pretty much every major highway in the DC area has them. We squeeze them in any way possible.